Brussels Lawmakers Propose Making Religion Classes Optional, Expanding Citizenship Education

In their proposal, they recommended to the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, in consultation with the education stakeholders, to improve the organizational conditions of philosophy and citizenship education in the non-denominational free education and to support the extension of a compulsory two-hour weekly philosophy and citizenship course in this network, reports Saphirnews.

However, they specified, schools will be required to continue to offer them to students who wish to take them "under conditions that make the exercise of their constitutional right to moral or religious education comfortable for students".

This resolution aims solely to "promote living together, the development of autonomous and critical thinking, and allow each student to develop as a person and citizen," they added, specifying that the proposal will be discussed in fifteen days in the Education Commission, then submitted to the plenary vote in Parliament.

For their part, the independent Democrats (DéFI), an opposition party, believe that the religious fact, the history of religions and interfaith dialogue should not disappear from school, because "knowledge of the different religions and major currents of thought, their origins, practices, rites, as well as pedagogically framed dialogue and exchanges between students, constitute an essential foundation for the knowledge of the other but also an essential prerequisite for social cohesion".