First came the merging of classes, then the reduction of religion classes to just one per week – this is how Barbara Nowacka’s ministry gradually deprived many catechists of their jobs. Now, dismissed teachers are considering going to court to fight for their rights.
The reduction in the number of religion class hours in schools, following the introduction of class merging, caused many catechists to lose their jobs. Teaching posts were either reduced or eliminated. However, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the regulation which led to this was inconsistent with the Constitution.
Now religion teachers are considering taking their cases to court, arguing that their treatment could be considered unconstitutional and that they may be entitled to compensation.
The portal prawo.pl emphasizes that this situation shows “how far Poland has strayed from the standards of the rule of law.”
The Method of Small Steps
The changes in the number of hours and the reduction of spending on catechesis teaching had been announced by Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition already during the election campaign. Barbara Nowacka, who heads the Ministry of Education, issued two ordinances on the matter. In 2024, the Ministry of National Education issued a regulation allowing for the easy creation of cross-class groups. Based on this, schools could gather children from several grades into a single classroom for religion lessons.
But Nowacka’s ministry did not stop there. The next step was a second ordinance, issued in January 2025, which limited religion classes to just one hour per week. Although it formally came into effect on September 1, its effects were visible earlier. School principals, while planning for the new school year, reduced the number of hours or dismissed catechists altogether.
Alarming Signals
The church and organizations bringing together catechists (such as the Association of Lay Catechists) strongly protested against the changes. Arguments were raised that the ordinances would lead to staff cuts among religion teachers. The Presidium of the Polish Bishops’ Conference declared outright that the ordinance was an “unlawful act,” reminding that “the legally required agreement with the Catholic Church and other interested religious associations had not been reached on its content.”
“As Deputy Minister Katarzyna Lubnauer pointed out when asked about this, religion is mainly taught in schools by clergy, so if the Catholic Church were to withdraw them from schools, there would still be enough work for lay catechists. She stressed that the decision lies with the Church, and it is responsible for the people it assigns to work,” recalls prawo.pl.
At the time, the deputy minister advised catechists to take advantage of free postgraduate studies organized by the ministry, for example in the field of health education, in order to “gain new qualifications.”
Now catechists are considering whether they have grounds to seek compensation from the State Treasury. Lawyers are divided on their chances of successfully asserting their rights in court.
