The survey “Religious Education in Schools (Still) in Serbia?” (January 2016, N=230) shows that the debate over religious education is not only about one school subject, but about a broader dilemma: should Serbia be a strictly secular state, or a state in which traditional religious communities enjoy a privileged position?
Respondents are by far best informed about the Serbian Orthodox Church: a total of 46.1% say they are “fully” or “mostly” familiar with it, while knowledge of other communities is predominantly low (for example, 55.2% say “not at all” for the Jewish community, and 40.9% for Islam). In other words, public perceptions of religion in Serbia are most often formed through an “Orthodox prism.”
Regarding the status of religious communities, most respondents choose a more liberal model: 58.7% believe all religious communities should have equal rights as long as they do not violate the law. Still, a significant share moves in the opposite direction: 20% support the idea of a state religion (Orthodoxy), and 7.4% would grant special rights only to “traditional” communities. On the other end of the spectrum, 13.9% argue for abolishing the right to religious organizing, indicating a strong anti-clerical impulse in part of the sample.
Religious practice is uneven: 19.6% say they have never attended a religious service, and 27.4% cannot remember when they last did. At the same time, the sample includes 50.4% Orthodox Christians but also a high share of atheists (30.4%) and agnostics (7.0%), which helps explain why the topic of religious education produces sharp divisions.
On the most sensitive question—whether introducing religious education violates the Constitution by undermining the secular character of the state—the results are almost a dead heat: 40.9% say “yes,” 38.3% say “no,” and 13.9% have no opinion. Skepticism about outcomes is even clearer: 47.4% believe religious education does not contribute to religious tolerance, while 29.6% say it does.
A compromise proposal—introducing a subject about religions, but taught not by representatives of religious communities—receives mixed support: 56.5% are “in favor” or “partly in favor,” while 33.5% are against. At the same time, 45.7% explicitly state that religious education should not take place in public schools (versus 39.1% who disagree).
Notably, a separate subject on atheism does not win majority support: 63.5% oppose it, while only 26.5% are “in favor” or “partly in favor.” This suggests that part of the public may accept religion as a cultural topic, but does not want schools to become an ideological “ring.”
When the discussion shifts to parental decisions, differences become even more visible: 16.5% say their child attends religious education, 18.3% would enroll their child, while 27.8% say they would not enroll their child even if the option existed. Many responses emphasize the child’s freedom of choice—emerging as the smallest shared denominator in a society that has no consensus on the role of religion.