Society and Church: Fundamentals of religious cultures launched at Russian schools

Russia is launching pilot project which is going to cover 19 regions and is called to introduce fundamentals of religious cultures at schools. St. – Petersburg has not been included into this list yet.

The experiment will kick off at 4th grades. Pupils together with their parents will be able to choose which religion they are going to study. These are Orthodoxy, Islam, Buddhism and Judaism, and also a course of history of world religious cultures or secular ethics.

Each course “is aimed at arousing interest among pupils to religion and tolerance". The editorial staff, who worked on the textbooks, tried their best to avoid a split among faith communities.

According to polls, the majority of parents and pupils of schools, which launched a pilot project, have chosen secular ethics, followed by the fundamentals of Orthodoxy (2nd place).