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This article is based on two studies. In 2011-2018, a study was conducted on the number of schools teaching religious education (RE). The study was based on data of the Estonian Education Information System and also on questionnaires sent to the teachers. For the second study, in 2015-2016, 22 interviews were conducted with upper secondary school teachers, being concerned mostly with the syllabuses of the RE. The interviews were analysed by means of inductive content analysis. According to the findings, teaching RE is much more common in upper secondary schools than in basic schools. As RE is an elective subject, the number of schools where it is taught vary each year, as well as the exact name of the subject, and the number of courses vary from one school to another. This makes implementing of national curricula for RE heavily reliable on the choices of RE teachers. Development of the syllabus and compiling of new textbooks is necessary to improve the quality of teaching. But first and foremost, there is a need to develop training and in-service training of the teachers, as they are the main decision-makers about what and how to teach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]