In the autonomous communities of the Spanish State, and therefore in the CAPV and in Navarra, the obligation to offer religion in the public school is a consequence of the agreement signed by Franco in 1953 and renewed in 1979. In several elections since the dictator's death, the left-wing parties have promised us that nothing more will come to power, this convention will be abolished, but whenever they have achieved power, things have been maintained. The only change they have made is that since 1992 you can choose between more religions, except Catholic, Islamic, Hebrew and Evangelical can be promoted in their faith at the expense of everyone’s money.

The situation does not seem to change, it is becoming increasingly clear that religion is the only way out of schools, that children are not enrolled in the subject. We will try to argue this trend.

Those who support the subject use the right term. Euskaltzaindia says that they are “the basic faculties that are recognized to the individual for their simple status as a person and for their dignity”. In other words, we all have the same rights, even when we enroll in public school. There are many religions in the world and in our schools, that some are promoted by everyone in their beliefs, and others are not, it is not a right, it is a privilege. And education, at least public, should not favor privilege.

It opposes the rights of the child. Article 14 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Youth states that “Member States shall ensure the freedom of thought, conscience and religion of the child”. In other words, States (and parents) should do their best to ensure that the education of the child is free and critical, so that he then makes his choices without manipulation.

Religion is the only optional theme in Children and Primary and in the first cycle of ESO. That is, those children in each course will spend about 40 hours outside their group. We will not say that this makes group relations difficult, but it does not facilitate them either. There are usually a few who choose religion in each class and tend to accumulate classes, so what is first set to do the schedules is this theme and the rest later conditions the working day throughout the school. There have been attempts to put in extreme hours (the first or the last) and that colleagues stay at home… but the Holy Church expressed its complaints, it seems that in extreme hours faith is reduced.

In all classes, students have the same number of hours, that is, religion has to be removed from another subject. An easy to understand example are those elective subjects, 2 or 3 hours, in high school, to raise the grade in the selectivity. What's the difference? On the subject? No, in religion. If a student (or his or her legal guardian) wants to learn religion, he or she is removed from the optional subject, so the same subject in some cases is 3 hours a week and in others 2 hours. There was a 37 hour decrease in the performance of the selectivity test.

The other point cited is ethical education. Ethics wants to be the set of attitudes and norms that serve all over the world and all the time: “We are all equal and equivalent, so we deserve the same rights”, but the church and faith teach morality, standards that serve a particular place and time. “We all have the same rights but women are less than men, so they cannot be priests/magnets/rabbis,” for example.

Many holy doctrines and books are anti-reason and anti-science. How long has the universe been made, six days like that for millions of years?

We spend EUR 700 million each year on keeping religious teachers. In the case of Catholics we know that teachers have to count on the approval of the bishops, but nobody has told us how and who chooses those of other religions, and how we maintain them among all (their salary comes from our reason. Is there anything better, what to spend? Do I not know, for example, about the welfare of young and old people? ), we believe we have every right to know… given that the only teachers who do not appear on the web are religious. The full resume of all the others is there and in your case there is not even the number of them.

That is why we demand the secular nature of the school, we urge the Government of Spain and our politicians to abolish once and for all concordance and agreements with other religions, and all of you to give priority to science and thought in the education of your children, without registering in religion.

Public education is secular now!

Arantza Lekuona, member of the Laikasuna collective.