INDONESIA – Indonesia: New Religious Education Bill requires Registration of Sunday Schools

World Watch Monitor | Oct. 30, 2018

Christians in Indonesia are opposing a new religious education bill that will require them to obtain government approval for holding Sunday schools or confirmation classes, reports the Catholic news site UCAN.

The draft bill prescribes that these classes can only be offered if there are at least 15 participants and the organiser has the approval of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

The draft “Islamic boarding schools and religious education” bill is aimed at regulating how schools, and also religious institutions like churches, teach religion and the government’s involvement in financing and supporting it.

“The main responsibility of the state is to protect, to ensure that every religion can propagate their activities and not regulate and restrict them,” Fr. Vinsensius Darmin Mbula, from the Education Commission at the Indonesian bishops’ conference, told UCAN.

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