THE CONTRIBUTION OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CONFRONTING STUDENTS WITH THE COVID-19 VIRUS

Abstract

The second school year is underway, the dynamics of which have been significantly determined by the epidemiological situation, depending on the individual country. The pandemic strongly marked not only the organizational aspect of teaching, but in a sense imposed pedagogicaldidactic evaluation and the meaning of school. We could say that it is a pandemic, with all the unpredictable challenges it has brought, is a certain “re-accreditation” of the educational system, and in a specially way of the curriculum of religious education. In this paper, we want to analyse the extent to which religious education within the educational system has provided support in confronting students with the issues and difficulties caused by the pandemic. We will answer the question of whether and how religious education has helped students “metabolize” the unpredictable and difficult situations produced by the pandemic, transforming them into a new experience based on trust and hope. Namely, the pandemic intensified the fundamental existential questions to which religious education was called to provide answers.

In the first part of the paper, we define the basic goals of religious education and its contributions to achieving basic goals of the school. In the second part, based on the analysis of the subject curriculum of Catholic religious education, we single out topics that could have made a significant contribution to the confrontation of students with the pandemic. In the third part, we present the results of a survey on how religious teachers had personally and together with students dealt with the issues, experiences and consequences of the pandemic. Finally, we will try to answer the question of whether the pandemic is a kind of “re-accreditation” of the justification of religious education in school or whether it has indicated the aporia in the content of religious education that should be confronted.