All religious indoctrination of children, everywhere, should be outlawed.
There should be no "prayer" in schools, or in any other public place.
If people want their religious delusions, let them go to their places of
worship.
"Religious education" is an oxymoron.

Thank you for sharing and welcome. I am British and being taught about religion in schools is compulsory. British children get taught about all the faiths commonly practiced in UK. Recently this has included humanism and atheism. As a child, I was fascinated with them all but nothing convinced me to become religious. There are lots of religious schools in UK too. I am opposed to them.

there is a difference between teaching ABOUT religion, which is a thing that exists and has a profound effect on history and society, and teaching a religion, as if its tenets are facts. there are classes here and there called (something like) comparative religion. there are also classes that teach religion as fact. the latter is indoctrination. the former is education. they must not be confused.

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Religious education should be taught for what it is: mythology. The murders of millions of people should be taught. You are incorrect; most of Europe may be tagged "religious", but in practice they are secular.

When most Americans tell you they are against teaching religion in our public schools it is because of our clause for separation of church and state. What we are fighting against is Evangelicals moving in to claim we are really a Christian Nation and what they are pushing is their own brand of religion. In other words, their church and their Sunday School moves right in to become part of public education. This is wrong. Flat out wrong!

What would be allowed in teaching about religion is all religions in general, what they are about, and where they came from. In this way religion itself does not dominate our public education. Religion is taught as an historical point and not a "chose you this day which god you will serve" situation. No god will ever dominate the classroom and can never be spoken of as doing so.

Religion taught in public schools is indoctrination because it takes advantage of a captive audience. If children wish to learn about religions, it should be a parent approved opt-in option, not a no permission needed but opt-out after the fact option. If taught as an elective that can be chosen by the parent(s) of a child, fine. But otherwise religion should not be taught in public schools, period, as it is utter bullshit nonsense that will in no way teach a child about the way the world works, except to teach them that there are very rich and powerful people that use religion as a tool to control everyone's lives.

I think religious "indoctrination" should not be allowed ANYWHERE at ANYTIME in a child's development. Indoctrination implies brainwashing, which is forcing only one idea into one's belief system and denying any other.

As Marionville has stated Uganda was based on the UK system. Here is my experience with it.
I went to a church of England (C of E) state school. It has often been mentioned that the C of E is an inoculation against religion. My experience was thus. Morning assembly constituted school news followed by prayers and hymns. Where gods love would be attempted to be instilled into you by the same sadistic bastards who would quite happily smack your hand with a ruler for any and all infractions of rules or insubordination. Hymns would be mouthed and mumbled through, only when something caught our attention like "Jerusalem" or the odd Christmas carol, could we be arsed giving any voice. R.E. (religious education) was 1-hour compulsory mixed bag. Primary school, the basics of Christianity. Later we got an ex-missionary who was quite free-thinking and would open up discussions on such subjects as abortion. Surprisingly, taking the pro-choice stance. After him, we ended up with a last chance no-hope teacher. who we all knew was only there fill in the hour.
Add to all this, interminable, dia Sundays. TV limited to late evening and all the shops/pubs closed. This has left me and most of my contemporaries with a healthy contempt for the god squad. I am not bitter or spiteful. If someone wants to walk that road? then good luck to them but I will be in the pub. Which thankfully is now open all day Sunday.

Comparative religions showing that virgin births of gods and floods and smiting and m̶i̶r̶a̶c̶l̶e̶s stunts are nothing unique to xtians and not even at all original.

If there needs to be religious teaching it needs to be done in churches not public schools!

Very slippery slope between indoctrination and education can be a dangerous precedent several states in the bible belt are trying to do this with the intention of promoting their religious beliefs on everyone with a big push from the evangelical church some are even trying to have religious police religion and government do not belong together

It is tough to teach a fully comprehensive religions course and to do it well and objectively. I used to complain to a friend about his comparative religion class that it was too Abrahanic centric and totally skipped the non Trinitarians and Nativist religions and the rejectors of standard religious thought.

If religion is to be a school topic, it should be presented as mythology rather than reality.

Teaching about religion, perhaps as a part of education of an historical nature is acceptable, but teaching religion is not, no matter what the rationale.

The education system in Uganda was set up and based entirely on the British Education system. My father in law was part of the group of British educationists who were sent to Uganda in the 1950’s prior to Ugandan Independence to set up and train Ugandan teachers in British teaching methods and curriculum. This was probably changed after independence, but the foundations may have held to some extent....so they should be based on a secular system of education, religion being taught as a subject and not used as indoctrination.

You be on the wrong site.

There is a place for religion in public education. As the single most destructive human activity religion is the cause of much world history. How about a new subject, "Human Disasters".... War, Plague and Religion.

I'd be very against religious teaching in schools period. How do you know what is being taught is "correct", that's right, YOU DON"T! Lets keep schools and government clean of that bullshit and indoctrination. I can't stop a parent abusing their child by pushing their religious but I sure would not push that on my children and didn't.

The problem is that the teacher will have a bias. They will, possibly even subconsciously, frame the teaching with their own bias. Religion should be left to parents and/or the religious institutions that parents decide to follow.

Perhaps schools should teach religion. But the children should be encouraged to study as many different faiths as possible, from as unbiased a perspective as possible. Pastafarianism should definitely be on the list. Perhaps the Jedi faith, too.

If you've brainwashed your kids into believing there's a God prior to them entering school, then I'm not sure how much damage a religious education in school can do. But showing that there are different religions with different ideas about who's in charge, and humans' relationship with them, might actually cause more to question whether it makes any sense.

Of course, it should be outlawed. It should be part of the curriculum for medical student - mental diseases.

I think a comparative religions class should be taught alongside a course in critical thinking and philosophy. Outlawing religious indoctrination seems wrong; it will likely have a backlash. We should instead openly challenge it in public. Expose the hypocrisy that it entails and then trust the people to make their own decisions.

If we could offer a truly unbiased course of the “History of Religion”, maybe.

Learning about other religions was pivotal in helping me draw away from the religion I was raised in. I learned that my religion wasn't as special and unique as I'd been let to believe. I think a religion course that taught the basic beliefs of each of the world's major religions, including their history, would be powerful in helping young people recognize the true nature of their religions.