Moscow, Russia - Russia's human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin opposes the idea of teaching religious subjects at schools.
"The Russian Constitution and the Law on the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations documents the secular status of the state, and state and municipal schools. This clearly indicates that the mandatory teaching of religious subjects at schools is unacceptable," Lukin said in a report on human rights and the modernization of Russian education, obtained by Interfax.
Lukin therefore proposed that the law be supplemented with amendments "ruling out the teaching of 'religious subjects' at state and municipal schools."
Information about various religions, in addition to the information provided in textbooks, could be taken from the textbook "Word Religions" currently being written, he said.
Lukin pointed out that, "Students at state and municipal schools must receive information about religions from historians and experts in world cultures and religions, not from the clergy.