Regional Mufti’s Office – Blagoevgrad hosted a joint meeting, organized by Grand Mufti’s Office, with the teachers in the subject “Religion – Islam” from the regions of Pazardzhik and Blagoevgrad, on June 10 (Wednesday) this year. It was attended also by the candidate – teachers in the religious subject in the state schools, who took part in the retraining course of UNIBIT, and who will begin their teaching activity in the two regions from the beginning of the upcoming 2020/2021 school year.

Official guests of the working meeting were the Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi, the Deputy Grand Mufti Ahmed Hasanov – in charge of “Education” at Grand Mufti’s Office, the head of the Department of Education Amir Feleti, as well as the muftis of Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik Aydan Mohamed and Abdullah Salih.

“During the held meeting we presented the new textbooks for the subject “Religion – Islam” from 1^st to 5^th grade, we informed our colleagues teachers about the process for their approval by the Ministry of Education and Science, and what follows from now on.” – commented for Grandmufti.bg the Head of the Department of Education Amir Feleti.

The Deputy Grand Mufti Ahmed Hasanov presented to the participants in the meeting the work of the Committee for the preparation of the new textbooks for the subject “Religion-Islam”, and acknowledging the work of the teachers in the religious subject in the state schools in the scope of the regional mufti’s offices of Blagoevgrad and Pazardzhik. Hasanov expressed his hope that “Religion – Islam” will begin to be taught in schools on the territory of more regional mufti’s offices in our country.

The Grand Mufti Dr. Mustafa Hadzhi greeted all teachers who participated in the meeting, and focused on the importance and the mission which they have. The religious leader of the Muslims in Bulgaria gave guidelines on how to be mutually helpful to each other and expressed his hope that the number of the schools in our country, in which “Religion-Islam” is taught, as well as the number of the students who study this subject, will only increase over the time.

The working meeting was closed with a session for questions and sharing of opinions on the topic.

According to the information from the Department of Education at Grand Mufti’s Office, currently the subject “Religion-Islam” is taught in 18 school in total in the scope of Regional Mufti’s Office – Blagoevgrad and Regional Mufti’s Office – Pazardzhik. These are two of the mufti’s offices in the country in which there is the greatest interest in the religious subject and respectively the subject is taught in the largest number of educational institutions. The Committee for the preparation of the new textbooks for the subject “Religion-Islam” continues its active work on writing and preparing the textbooks from 6^th to 12^th grade, and it is expected that they will be completed by the end of the calendar year 2020. After that the textbooks will be submitted for approval by the Ministry of Education and Science.

Author: L. Chausheva