Religious education in the function of multiculturalism from Macedonian perspective

This paper is focused on the question of effects of the introduction of religious education in Macedonian primary schools.Namely, the reforms in the Macedonian educational system, in the part that relates to the curriculum for primary education,among other issues, deal with the enrichment of the curriculum with religious content. The aim of this reform is to encourage multiculturalism and intercultural communication for confessional tolerance, democratic dialogue, mutual respect, common life and progress of community. A few years ago, a subject with religious content was introduced to elementary school students, entitled Ethics in religion, which has the status of an elective subject. At first parents and teachers rather adversely embraced this reform. However, several years of experience have shown positive results that will be presented in this paper in full. But here we feel the need to mention a few of them: increased interest in the contents of this subject; each year the greater number of students who choose this subject, and also increasing interest among parents. With the introduction of standards for student achievement, students' average performance on this subject (in comparison with other items) was significantly higher in comparison with the external assessment of student achievement, almost the highest at around 4 (the data refer to academic 2013/14 year). Keywords: multiculturalism, religious education, primary schoo