Walka o utrzymanie nauczania religii w szkołach w okresie Polski Ludowej

Abstract

After the liberation of Poland in 1944-1945 the Polish education system was restored after the pre-war manner. First, the religious education was issued as a subject in the school program. In the course of time, the Communist state government discontinued religious education in the schools, and refused to hire new teachers. In the first half of the 1950s a number of primary and secondary schools remained without religious education. Religious education in schools was reintroduced after the October ‘56 due to agreements between the communist government and the episcopate. The lesson of religion become a facultative subject, and for those students only who demanded it in writing. That situation did not last long, as the Communist authorities targeted to abolish religious education. The secular school system was established by the law in July 1961. The Polish episcopate protested against that state of affairs, but the religion returned to schools only after the fall of communism in 1990.