Patriarch Kirill will ask Putin not to exclude the subject of morality from schools

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ said that he would appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a request not to allow the subject “Fundamentals of the Spiritual and Moral Culture of the Peoples of the Russian Federation” to be excluded from schools. The Ministry of Education proposed removing the subject from the school curriculum.

“At the moment when it is necessary to mobilize all the forces of the country, such decisions are made. Therefore, let’s adopt a resolution – in complete disagreement with this, we must insist that separate teaching continue. And I will make an appropriate appeal to the head of state,” the patriarch said at the extraordinary congress of the World Russian People’s Council (quote from TASS).

Patriarch Kirill noted that the subject of the fundamentals of spiritual and moral culture was introduced into the curriculum for grades 5-7 on the initiative of the Russian Orthodox Church, which was supported by Vladimir Putin. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church noted that the decision to exclude the program may indicate different goal-setting between the church and the authorities.

Ministry of Education offered to exclude the subject “Fundamentals of the spiritual and moral culture of the peoples of Russia” in April 2024. The draft order published by the department proposed including the subject in the module “History of our region.”

Lusine Balasyan