HIS-Press-Service, 1977 (2. évfolyam, 5-8. szám)
1977-12-01 / 8. szám
HIS Press Service No.8. December 1977 Page 4 the teachers union appointed by him, or by the chairman of the parent organizations. The achievements of the pupils cannot be graded, nor may any type of disciplinary action be taken against the pupils. Even the new regulations, which stem from the Government Decree No.39 of 1957 and are in force at present, have changed nothing in the above directives. Directly after the issuance of these regulations, 80% of the pupils were still taking part in religious instruction. By 1955, the number participating had sunk to a national average of 40%. In 1960, it was but 25%; in 1965, 10%. In 1975, only 6-7% of the pupils - mainly those in the villages - still took part in religious instruction. In Budapest and the larger cities of the province, religious instruction has been almost completely discontinued as a result of the hampering regulations and the administrative chicanery practiced by the State agencies. The State Office for Church Affairs, which is responsible for the State supervision of religious affairs is, in principle, willing to investigate the abuses perpetrated by the executive agencies. A complaint of this type, however, carries with it a large personal risk for parents and pupils which the parents generally prefer avoiding. The decline to 6-7% in the number of pupils participating in religious instructions for the year 1975 means numerically that of the estimated 735,000 pupils which are considered Catholic (62% of the 1,188,000 pupils in Hungary),i.e. those who would normally take part in religious instruction, no more than approximately 50,000 actually received instruction in the schools, and these, as already said, are almost all pupils living in the villages. CHURCH RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION The numerous reprisals involved finally led to the conclusion that the parents could hardly be expected to take upon themselves any longer the difficulties connected with the religious instruction of their children in the schools. At the registration for religious instruction, the educators were to urgently warn the parents of the unavoidable harmfulness of a "two-fold upbringing" upon the child, i.e., the diametrics existing between religious upbringing, and an upbringing in the spirit of materialism as offered through the school. It could also be the case, it was pointed out, that participation in religious instruction could prove disadvantageous for the child should he at some future date wish to apply for acceptance at the university, just as the parents too would have to expect difficulties in the furtherance of their careers. In the face of such problems, a majority of the parents began looking for other possibilities for the religious training of their children. At the beginning of the 50's,previous members of religious orders often visited the families and gave
