Enrolment in religious studies is declining sharply in some regions of staunchly Catholic Croatia.
A third of pupils in Primorje-Gorski Kotar and Istria regions are not enrolled in the elective course of religious studies, which is significantly above the Croatian average. The situation is similar among high school students as well, with almost half of high school students in Istria choosing ethics instead of religious education, reports Novi List on November 2, 2015.
However, data published by Education Ministry show that this is not a new trend, but just a continuation of lower interest in the subject in comparison with other Croatian regions. For example, in Zadar, Split-Dalmatia, Krapina-Zagorje, Požega-Slavonia and Lika-Senj counties, religious studies are not attended by only between 2 and 4 percent of students.
Each year, the ratio of pupils who do not attend religious education increases somewhat. Overall, in the last school year, 300,801 elementary pupils attended religious studies, or 92 percent of all pupils, while three years earlier the subject was selected by 94 percent of pupils in Croatia. A similar decline in interest is present among high school students as well.
These data is confirmed by principals of schools in Rijeka. In the Srdoči elementary school, which is the largest elementary school in Rijeka, 488 out of 711 students attend religious studies, according to principal Ivan Vukić. That is a figure which is more or less constant from year to year. The situation is similar in other schools as well. “Personally, it is not surprising, because it is a trend that has been around for years. It is for this reason that the religious studies classes are usually scheduled as the first or the last class of the day”, Tatjana Bandera Mrakovčić, principal of Nikola Tesla Elementary School, says.
Unlike in the primary schools, high school students who do not attend religious studies are offered alternative course of ethics. But, for some schools, it is even harder to organize classes of ethics. “In our school, 80 percent of students attend religious studies. Since a smaller number of students chooses ethics, sometimes we have problems with the formation of classes”, Alen Vukelić, principal of the Medical Secondary School, says.
A slight decline in the interest of students for religious education is not really significant, believes Eli Pijaca Plavšić, executive director of the Forum for Freedom in Education. “The decline cannot be attributed to reasons related to some significant changes in the education system. The study we conducted in 2011 has shown that the biggest problem is that children who do not attend religious classes are facing pressure from their environment, organizational problems, and the absence of another elective subjects.”
Religious education is not just another school subject, because the decision is very often a choice of identity, and therefore the decision on whether a child will attend religious education is extremely difficult for both parents and children. Many parents enroll their children in religious education just so they would not be discriminated against, isolated or separated, Plavšić believes.
It is possible that the decline in attendance in secondary schools is the consequence of the fact that in the last few years there have been a lot of discussions about religious studies in schools and that some students and parents are now better informed about the issue.
