theists then you may be exempt from religion classes through some extra effort , but I have never seen someone in my life being exempt really . Maybe children of the most elite people are lucky enough , but surely not the average ones . I witnessed , during my education , that teaching about religion at schools backfires especially when its until 12 th grade . It give you a lot of time to judge the religion and understand how absurd it is when they keep talking about it once a week . We assume students being exposed by religious teachings get numb and took them as the ultimate truth but i think its not true . I was raised in an Anatolion city until 12 th grade and most of my classmates and students from my school were making fun of religion and now they are non believers . I can say by giving religional education they raised nonbelievers .