Although the Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that such a solution is unconstitutional, Deputy Minister of Education Katarzyna Lubnauer maintains that the regulation eliminating religion grades from the overall grade point average applies to all schools.
In three weeks, students will receive their end-of-year report cards. However, this year, grades in ethics and religion will no longer be included in the GPA. This is the result of an amendment to the regulation on student assessment, classification, and promotion.
Government Disregards the Ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal
At the end of May, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the regulation was unconstitutional, stating that it had been introduced without consultation with the Church and religious associations. The ruling has yet to be published in the Journal of Laws, in accordance with the government’s decision.
When asked whether schools have clarity on how to apply the regulations, Lubnauer emphasized that the regulation “underwent a full consultation process and has been published in the Journal of Laws”—and therefore applies to all schools, all teachers, and all principals.
“If school principals signal that they require additional clarification, we will reiterate what, to us, is obvious: that the regulation on assessment has been published in the Journal of Laws (…) and it clearly states which subjects count toward the GPA,” she noted.
Asked what schools should do in light of the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, the Deputy Minister of Education responded: “We are very clear: we operate solely on the basis of legal documents that have been published.” Meanwhile, the Tribunal’s rulings continue to go unpublished in the Journal of Laws.
The President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski, has signed a 60-page notice of a reasonable suspicion of a crime committed by the Prime Minister, ministers, the Marshal of the Sejm, the Marshal of the Senate, members of parliament and senators from the ruling coalition, the head of the Government Legislation Centre, and certain judges and prosecutors. At that time, PiS (Law and Justice) members of parliament declared that the current government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, had carried out a “constitutional coup d’état.”
The Tribunal to Revisit the Issue of Religion Classes
Bishop Wojciech Osial, Chairman of the Commission for Catholic Education of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, described the Tribunal’s ruling on religion and ethics grades as highlighting “unlawful actions by the Ministry of Education with regard to the legislative procedure.” He reiterated that the Church has from the outset considered the changes—excluding religion grades from the GPA, merging classes, and introducing minimum student numbers per class (as per the July 26 regulation last year)—to be unjust and illegal.
On July 3, the Constitutional Tribunal is set to review yet another change introduced by the government concerning religion classes. This time, it concerns a Ministry of Education regulation stipulating that, as of September 1, religion or ethics classes will be held once per week. This regulation has been challenged before the Tribunal by First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska.