Jose Luis Yague says he does not mind the Nativity scene or the carved statue of St. Christopher that adorns his 5-year-old daughter's public school in the city center. But the teacher who stands at the entrance each morning, "wooing the children to choose her class" on Roman Catholicism, is too much, he says.
"You don't see the English or German teacher saying, `Come to my class, it's great fun,"' said Yague, a self-described atheist. "I fail to understand the support still given to religion by this supposedly secular state."
While Frence President Jacques Chirac has called for a ban on religious symbols in public schools, the conservative administration of Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar in Spain, who favors a mention of Christianity in a future European constitution, has passed a law to strengthen the presence of the Roman Catholic Church in the Spanish schools. National teachers unions, parents associations and opposition political parties have reacted with outrage.
Under the law, all students must take a class each year on Roman Catholic dogma, taught by church appointees and intended for practicing Catholics, or an alternative, secular class on world religions that education officials say offers a historical approach but that opposition party leaders contend is similar to the Catholicism class. The religion grades count toward final averages, which determine promotions and eligibility for competitive university programs.
The curriculum in the Catholicism class includes the church's position on divorce, sex and abortion, as well as basic theology.
Until now, an optional course on Roman Catholicism was offered during school hours but was not graded.
"Students now have to devote more class hours to studying religion than studying physics or chemistry," said Justo Lopez Cirujeda, president of the Spanish Teachers Union, one of several groups and regional governments that have filed suit since September in Spain's Constitutional Court to try to block the new law.
The French ban on religious symbols, coming days before the official release of the religious curriculum here, gave support to critics like Lopez and helped to mobilize proponents of secular education.
"Our ultimate objective is to take religion out of public schools completely," said Maite Pina, president of a federation of 11,500 parents associations linked to public schools. "But we are still light-years away from France. We can't even start to talk about whether or not to ban head scarves while there are still large crucifixes hanging in public schools and there are nuns in habits who teach pupils with state funds."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese