Brno, May 3 (CTK) – Czech schools must secure religious education if at least seven students enroll for it, otherwise they would commit an unlawful intrusion in their rights, the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) has ruled.
Legitimate reasons for not providing religion classes might be a sudden death or absence of the respective teacher or non-cooperation of a church or a religious community that was to mediate a suitable teacher, but not the school’s unwillingness or inability to secure such a teacher and suitable space and time for religious education, court panel chairman Jakub Camrda said.
The court has dealt with the issue on the basis of a complaint filed by a group of parents and children from a primary school in the vicinity of Pribram, central Bohemia, against the school director for having cancelled religious education in the second term of the school year 2012/2013.
The director argued that she had failed to agree with the religion teacher on further cooperation.
The complaint on suspicion of an unlawful intrusion was first filed with the Prague Regional Court that rejected it. It concluded that the school director had good reasons for cancelling the subject.
The NSS returned the case to the regional court for reappraisal. The NSS says the court must assess more thoroughly whether there were really serious reasons for interrupting cooperation with the religion teacher and whether the director asked the Romany Catholic Church to recommend another suitable teacher in time.
The NSS referred to a stance by the Prague Archbishopric that wrote it would not be a problem to find another teacher. It also pointed out that religious education has not been discontinued at that school even under the communist regime.
According to the NSS, though religion is only an optional subject, the right to its teaching indirectly ensues from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms.
“As soon as at least seven children enroll for religious education of a church or a religious community authorised to it at a school administered by the state, a region or a municipality, they have the right to have its teaching secured,” the NSS ruled.
