Government's removal of religion grades from student averages unconstitutional, rules Polish top court

Poland's Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that the government's decision to remove marks obtained in Catholic catechism classes from school grade averages is unconstitutional. It says that the education ministry should have first reached an agreement with the Catholic church on the changes.

However, the government regards the Constitutional Tribunal – which remained stacked with judges appointed under the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) administration – as illegitimately constituted and is certain to ignore the ruling, as it has previously.

But the chief justice of the Constitutional Tribunal has warned school principals and teachers that, if they do not take account of the ruling, they may be “participating in possible criminal actions”.

Since the current government, a coalition ranging from left to center-right, came to power at the end of 2023, it has sought to overhaul the way that religion classes are organized in Polish schools.

Those lessons in practice consist of Catholic catechism, with teachers and curricula chosen by the Catholic church . Participation in them is optional, though a majority of pupils attend.

The changes included halving the number of hours religion is taught from two to one per week; allowing schools to create religion classes composed of pupils from different year groups; and removing religion grades from students' end-of-year averages.

Those policies have been strongly criticized by the Catholic church , as well as by PiS, which is now the main opposition party, and PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda . A group of PiS MPs filed a case at the Constitutional Tribunal, arguing that the removal of religion grades from end-of-year averages is unconstitutional.

In a ruling issued on Thursday, a panel of three Constitutional Tribunal judges – led by the court's chief justice, Bogdan Święczkowski , and also containing former PiS MP Stanisław Piotrowicz – concurred with that view.

They found that the education ministry had failed in its duty under the Polish constitution and Poland's concordat with the Vatican to consult and agree with the Catholic church before making any changes to religion teaching in schools.

The judges pointed to article 25 of the constitution, which states that the “relationship between the state and churches shall be based on the principle of respect for their autonomy and the mutual independence” and that the relationship with the Catholic church is determined by the concordat.

They then noted that articles 12 and 27 of the concordat outline the obligation for Poland to provide Catholic teaching in schools and to ensure that any changes are agreed with the church.

“If the grade for religion is no longer treated in the same way as in the case of other subjects, and thus loses its influence, then such a situation constitutes a change in the manner of performing tasks related to teaching religion,” wrote the judges. “[Such a] change must therefore be agreed with the church.”

The TK noted that the education ministry had not made any attempt to agree on the change with the church, and had in fact refused to take into account negative opinions issued by church bodies.

Normally, the government would be required to obey Constitutional Tribunal rulings. However, the current administration points to the fact that the Constitutional Tribunal contains judges illegally appointed when PiS was in power and therefore refuses to accept its rulings as valid.

Last August, when the Constitutional Tribunal issued an interim order seeking to halt the government's changes to the teaching of religion, the education ministry ignored it, saying that the court currently has “no legal basis” to operate.

In November, the Constitutional Tribunal also ruled that the ministry's decision to allow religion classes to be composed of pupils from different year groups was unconstitutional. The government has also ignored that ruling, prompting the Catholic episcopate to send letters of complaint to Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Speaking on Thursday to Catholic broadcaster Radio Maryja, Święczkowski called on the government to stop ignoring the tribunal's rulings and warned that, in this particular case, doing so would “have a very negative impact on students.”

Święczkowski added that “every school principal, every teacher, should ask themselves whether they want to participate in possible criminal actions of the government.”

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling was welcomed by Wojciech Osial, the bishop of Łowicz, who told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that it “shows the illegal actions of the education ministry in terms of the procedure for proceeding with changes” to religion teaching.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl