Freedom of Education in Religious matters and its Legal Implementation
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Freedom of education regarding religious matters is not achieved simply by making provisions in study plans for the possibility of taking up an optional course dedicated to the study of this or that particular religion. A neutral type of religious formation, in which greater or lesser doses of Catholicism, Protestantism or Atheism are to be mingled together, is simply not feasibIe. Religious liberty rests upon freedom of education as a prerequisite. This freedom exists when any citizen -or, in the case of a person who is unable to fend for himself, his parents or guardians- is given a variety of options in educational matters which enable him to choose that educational center which best suits his necessities or purposes. Religious liberty in education is only one more element -although perhaps the most relevant one- contained within the notion of freedom of education. Most legal texts of the highest order -constitutional charters of many States and numerous international agreements- usually name the right to freedom of education along with other fundamental rights, a special mention usually being given to religious liberty in education. However, it must be borne in mind that in numerous occasions of basic rights legal texts in many aspects are merely declarations of principles, and in practice these principles may indeed never be fully applied. There are two main factors which make freedom of education possible in an effective manner: a) freedom garanted in the creation of educational centers which are allowed the possibility of organizing themselves in accordance to particular lines not imposed from without and which are to be respected by the Law, and b) equality with regard to the financing of all educational centers, public or prívate. The topic of the «confessionality» of education refers to the doctrinal content of non-religious subject maters. This content is to be found in a large number of subjects, particulary in the branch of Humanities. The systematic study of the doctrinal content of a particular religion is another matter altogether which bears no relation to what is to be understood by the term confessionality of education. This concept does not contradict the principle of religious liberty. On the contrary, the guarantee of this liberty is to be found in the existence of pluralism in schooling which permits one to freely choose whatever type of education best corresponds to his own convictions in religious matters.
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