site.btaVirtues and Religions Subject Will Not Be on Curriculum in 2025/2026 School Year - Education Minister

Bulgarian Education and Science Minister Krasimir Valchev said here on Tuesday that the revisions to the Pre-school and School Education Act providing for the introduction of Virtues and Religion as a school subject will probably be debated in Parliament at first reading on Wednesday.

Valchev said further that the syllabus for the subject is being prepared and teachers can be trained quickly, but writing the textbooks takes more time, which is why Virtues and Religions cannot possibly be added to the curriculum for the 2025/2026 school year.

The Minister specified that the syllabus will not be approved before all stakeholders reach tentative agreement. The syllabus will be alternative and core: if the pupils wishing to study the conventional syllabus Orthodox Christianity are fewer than six, they will be enrolled in Virtues and Religions. Valchev stressed that not a single schoolchild will be obliged to study a religion against the wish of the child or their parents. 

The introduction of the new subject has sparked a heated controversy along the conservative-liberal divide.

Proponents insist that the core syllabus will be non-confessional, pluralistic, and with a strong emphasis on universal human values and will therefore not indoctrinate pupils but will enhance their character education and moral integrity. They say that parents will have a choice between a confessional and non-confessional option of the subject and argue that religion is taught at schools in Greece, Poland, Romania and Austria. According to international human rights instruments, the right to education includes the right to religious education. Confessional instruction is a legitimate form of education that does not violate the freedom of conscience if organized in line with the principles enshrined in international law and good European practices.

Opponents argue that faith-segregated classes spell a huge risk to the ethnic and religious peace in mixed-population areas and to Bulgaria's national security. They criticize the use of sources and postulates from Russian Orthodoxy in drawing up the syllabus. They note that the mandatory study of religion at school comes into conflict with the Constitution, which defines Bulgaria as a secular state. In their opinion, the State is cast in an extrinsic role of organizing and financing with public funds an initiative that should be handled by the religious denominations. The critics opine that any form or religious instruction is a type of ideological indoctrination of children to be loyal to the ruling regime at the expense of the values of traditional family upbringing.