ENI – A proposal to make religion a required subject in the first seven years of school has triggered severe criticism from religious and secular quarters in Bulgaria – officially atheist in the years of communist rule but in which most of the 7.7 million population profess allegiance to the orthodox church.
The proposal focuses on educating children about religions rather than instruction in a single faith. It proposes teaching children about ethical issues including cloning and abortion.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church's position is that children of Orthodox families should study Orthodox Christianity, children of Muslims should study Islam and children of atheists should be able to study a subject of the kind proposed by the public council which he called  “a mixed-up history of religions.”
Psychologists and parents' associations rejected the proposals, while a sociology professor said there was no point in the proposal because only 25 per cent of Bulgarians were believers.
