Orthodox students will also have the right to an exemption for the Religious Studies course

THE Personal Data Protection Authority with its opinion redefines the conditions for the exemption of a student from the Religious Studies course, in view of the start of the new school year.

Specifically, the Authority, chaired by the honorary president of the Council of State, Konstantinos Menudakosopines that reasons that could justify exclusion from the course are not only those that refer to the religious conscience of children and their parents or guardians, but any reason that goes back to more general perceptions.

In fact, it is judged that the exception is not constitutionally tolerated to concern only the non-Christian Orthodox, but ruled that the same right should be given to the Orthodox students, in case they do not agree with the content of the course.

As the newspaper “Ta Nea” reports, the case came before the Personal Data Protection Authority, after the transmission of a document from the Ministry of Education in view of the publication of a circular for the exemption from the courses of Religious Studies, Music and Physical Education and the submission of relevant supporting documents by students and their parents.

Already, the Council of State with the decision 1478/2022, which was published on July 7 and accepted the request of parents who requested the cancellation of the 28.5.2021 KYA in the part that regulates the exemption of male and female students from the Religious Studies course .

Then, before the issuance of the KYA, the plenary session of the CoE decided that there should be a relevant opinion of the Personal Data Protection Authority.

According to the rationale of the opinion: “The general freedom of conscience does not have a standardized content, as it expresses the freedom of self-determination of personal conscience and covers all the conscience beliefs of the individual and not only those concerning the religious phenomenon.

From this point of view, the reference in the proposed regulation to “reasons of religious conscience” alone, as a justifying reason for the exercise of the right to exemption from the Religious Studies course, does not fully cover the whole range of conscientious beliefs protected by the ECHR and the Greek Constitution, and which include “and (the) more general worldviews.

In this light, the Authority ruled that Christian Orthodox students or their parents are expressly and by definition excluded from the right of exemption, who in order to exercise this right must renounce their religion”.

For balances between the state-citizen relationship, they say that “this free relationship between personal religious belief and individual conscience is worthy of constitutional protection, as a manifestation of the self-determination of conscience, and should be able to find expression within the framework of regulation of the right of exemption”.

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