Religious education at public schools of Kyrgyzstan

ABSTRACT The declaration of independency in 1991 became a turning point in the socio-economic, political and cultural fields of Kyrgyzstan. There have been important developments especially in the religious sphere. Since the first days of independency, issues related to freedom of religion and conscience have been heavily debated among Kyrgyz administrators. The general attitude of statesmen towards religion emerged as emphasising that the pressure applied towards religion in the Soviet period was wrong and paying attention to the social role of religion. New concepts such as secularism, freedom of religion and conscience have begun to be used actively in the country, on the other hand, the legitimacy of religious education in formal education institutions have begun to be discussed frequently by academics and politicians. Today, we can see some developments in formal religious education in Kyrgyzstan. Especially, there have been several attempts of teaching religion courses at public schools in Kyrgyzstan. In this report, religioous education at public schools in Kyrgyzstan will be evaluated in terms of the context, the legal and constitutional requirements for religious education in schools and the curriculum of the religion courses.