The situation surrounding the teaching of religion in schools has become "unbearable", according to the Archbishop's delegate for Catechisis René Camilleri.

The well-known priest said students were simply "regurgitating" answers in their Matsec exam-inations from parish catechisis lessons. Even at A-level, stereotyped, prefabricated answers were evi-dently being studied by heart.

"This is terrible, considering it's religion," he said, adding that in-service training for religion teachers was a priority.

While pointing out that current religion and textbooks "need urgent refurbishment" Fr Camilleri said the draft new syllabuses and learning outcomes have been prepared and recently forwarded to the Education Ministry for discussion.

He said the Church secretariat was currently rethinking the whole curriculum for lessons, adding that he considered it to be "too doctrine-oriented".

Fr Camilleri said a good number of students were nowadays quitting catechism lessons with the result that in the near future many would want to get married without having received confirmation.

Parishes were ill-prepared for the implications of the decision taken some years ago to postpone the age children received their confirmation from 10 to 12, he added.