Organizowanie lekcji religii w grupie międzyklasowej. Glosa do wyroku Naczelnego Sądu Administracyjnego z dnia 15 stycznia 2021 r., III OSK 2907/21
Organising religious education classes in inter-class groups: A commentary on the judgment of the Supreme Administrative Court on 15 January 2021, III OSK 2907/21

Summary/Abstract: The Supreme Administrative Court, in its judgment on 15 January 2021 (III OSK 2907/21) ruled on the illegality of teaching religion in inter-class groups composed of pupils of all grades (classes) in primary school, despite the fact that such an act is legal under a literal interpretation of § 2(1) of the regulation of the Minister of National Education of 14 April 1992 on the terms and ways of organising religion classes in public kindergartens and schools. This decision is just; however, two issues regarding the statement of reasons must first be addressed. First, the Supreme Administrative Court erroneously assumed that Article 53 para. 2 and 3, in conjunction with Article 48 para. 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1997, which guarantees the freedom of teaching religion and the right of parents to the religious and moral upbringing and teaching of their children, do not apply in cases concerning the organisation of religious education classes. However, religious education in schools is an integral element of the freedoms mentioned in the statute that has been consistently emphasised in jurisprudence from the Constitutional Tribunal since 1991 (K 11/90). Second, although the Supreme Administrative Court was correct to base its decision on Article 1 points 1 and 5 of the Education Law (i.e. education is to be appropriate to the age, achieved development and psychophysical abilities of students), it should be noted that Article 96 of the Education Law introduces restrictive conditions for creating combined classes (i.e. also inter-class groups), which can only be organised “in particularly difficult demographic or geographic conditions.” This applies to religious education classes as well and time significantly limits the ability of the Minister of Education to establish additional conditions for the admissibility of the creation of combined religious education classes.

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