Education and Church in Central- and Eastern-Europe at First Glance [antikvár]

ForewordGabriella Pusztai ForewordAt the Universit)' of Debrecen there have been researches about the role of churches in education since the second half of the '90s. During the fu'st in-depth research in Hungary and then in the Carpathian basin it became evident that the question was worth elaboration in the countries of political transformation. Important antecedents were EU publications issued in the '90s that undertook the task to oveniew and compare parts of the national education systems that were run by non-governmental actors. These publications dealt witii the present situation of these non-public schools in European education systems and beside the most important statistical data they also gave a comparative analysis of the legal measures concerning the legal frameworks, t)'pes of schools, conditions of school foundation, state support from public funds, relationships with state curricula, recognition of school leaving certificates and status of teachers (Eurydice 1993, Saha 1997, Eurj'dice 1999). They dealt, however, only with the then EU Member States and because of the special methodology, they were not really sensitive to the cultural traditions of the individual countries. Obviously they did not advert to the topic either, how religious education appears in the public education system or how public schools relate to the religious freedom of students belonging to various denoirdnations. During a comparative analysis certain historic characteristics, e.g. religious, denominational composition of a given countr)', the circumstances of the evolvement of the modern state and state administration can help analyse not only the extent (Archer 1979) and support of the school system run by churches and other non-state actors but the present characteristics of religious education in state schools (eligibility, fit in the timetable, conditions of joining and dropping a course) as well (Tomka 1992).There are a number of sharply contrasting views on the respective roles of the Church and the State in education in. According to one paradigm the Church and the State have been rivals since the very beginning, and the past two centuries have been all about the struggle between the old and the new dominating groups (Archer 1979), whereas according to another view certain social interest groups, leaning on the bureaucratic state for support, have got rid of the Churches in the first step in order to achieve civil rights (l^olanyi 1944), and later they have gradually Limited the role of the state as well (Molnar 1990).