Religious education

Students from a Muslim religious school in northeastern Greece have boycotted the latest curriculum that has reduced Turkish language lessons and Islamic teachings at the school.

The National Union of Theologians is urging school teachers to boycott religious education classes in protest at changes introduced by Greece's leftist-led government.

A debate in Croatia on the role of the powerful Catholic Church has reopened as Catholic priests hold prayers for the new school year in a number of public schools.

However, the country's Science and Education Ministry says any decisions to invite clergy to bless the new school year in schools lie in the hands of school directors, the news site Index reported on Monday.

Turkey's Education Ministry has introduced a draft curriculum that will cover all 51 compulsory classes that are taught in elementary, middle and high schools to the public opinion, while establishing a platform in which people will be able to leave comments and make contributions. 

Some Albanian teachers and professors have criticised a government initiative to include religious education and history as a compulsory course in secondary and high schools.

Prime Minister Edi Rama on Friday announced the move at a ceremony commemorating the birthday of the Prophet Muhammed and the Minister of Education, Lindita Nikolla, confirmed the plan on Monday.

The formal name of a controversial mandatory class in Turkish schools is "religious culture and moral knowledge" but the content of the class is actually general "religious education," the Council of State has ruled, adding that it is not lawful to make it compulsory for everyone. 

The Council of State has ruled that although the formal name of a mandatory class in Turkish schools is ?religious culture and moral knowledge,? the content of the class is actually general ?religious education,? dismissing the complaint of a family in a years-long legal saga. 

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected Turkey's appeal to a ruling that said high school students must be allowed to opt out of religious education classes, which are currently compulsory.

Turkey?s compulsory religious education classes in schools are again being debated, with the authorities saying that only Christian and Jewish students will be exempt from compulsory Sunni Islam courses at school.

Turkey’s National Education Council, an educational advisory body, decided over the weekend before last to recommend the Ministry of Education that Ottoman-language classes should be compulsory for religious high schools and electives for others.