The education ministry said it had no plans to amend regulations that have reduced religious instruction to one hour a week and changed how the classes are scheduled and assessed.
Since September last year, religion classes have generally been held immediately before or after compulsory lessons.
Earlier changes allowed schools to combine pupils from different classes for religious instruction and removed religion grades from the calculation of pupils' grade-point averages.
The Polish Bishops’ Conference, the central authority of the Catholic Church in Poland, criticized the measures in a statement ahead of the new school year, saying they were leading to the "marginalization" of religious instruction in schools.
The bishops called for the "immediate restoration of the proper place" of religion classes and for "genuine dialogue with representatives of religious communities."
Ministry spokeswoman Ewelina Gorczyca responded that the ministry "is not planning changes" to the regulation governing religious instruction in public preschools and schools.
Religious instruction has been offered in Polish public schools since its reintroduction in 1990 following the fall of communism.
The place of religion in state education has since been a recurring source of political dispute, particularly between the Catholic Church and governments seeking to reduce its institutional role in schools.
The Association of Lay Catechists also backed the bishops’ criticism.
The group is behind a bill drafted by the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, an ultra-conservative Catholic legal organization and think tank, that would require pupils to attend either religion or ethics classes for two hours a week.
The proposal, backed by more than 500,000 signatures, would also require grades from religion or ethics to appear on school certificates, count toward pupils’ grade-point averages and be taken into account when they advance to the next grade.
The bill passed its first reading in the lower house of parliament in September 2025. It received support from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, the far-right Confederation group, the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL) and some centre-right Poland 2050 lawmakers.
Parliamentary committee work on the proposal was suspended in May pending the government’s position.
Deputy Education Minister Katarzyna Lubnauer has said the proposal violates the principle of state neutrality on matters of belief, interferes with parents’ right to raise children according to their convictions and could force families to disclose their religious affiliation.
The dispute forms part of a wider conflict between the ministry and Catholic bishops over education policy, including the introduction and content of health education in Polish schools.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR/PAP