Non-governmental organisations, activists, parents, teachers and citizens have signed an appeal to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr Rosen Zhelyazkov, urging for more time to discuss the proposed changes in education.
On 23 May this year, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) published for public consultation a draft Law Amending and Supplementing the Pre-school and School Education Act (PSEA).
The proposed changes cover a wide range of areas and directly affect students, parents, teachers, and heads of schools and kindergartens. Among them are: the introduction of a compulsory new subject “Virtues and Religions” from Grade 1; an easier procedure for imposing sanctions on students; the option for repeating Grade 1; additional language support for students whose mother tongue is not Bulgarian; the exclusion of parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) from decision-making on their children’s education; granting the status of specialised schools to mathematics and science high schools, allowing early admission from Grade 5; the evaluation of teachers’ and school heads’ work; and many other changes.
So far, more than 460 citizens and organisations have supported the letter to the Prime Minister. They emphasise the importance of the issue and the strong public reaction to the draft law, insisting on a comprehensive ex-ante impact assessment of the proposed reforms.
In its opinion on the bill, the administration of the Council of Ministers also notes that the partial ex-ante impact assessment conducted by the Ministry of Education and Science “does not contain an in-depth analysis of the problems and proposed solutions in the context of the expected impact on stakeholders, which limits its usefulness and applicability as a tool for informed decision-making.”
The proposed education reforms have triggered a wave of public reactions, with the MES receiving over 2,000 pages of comments, opinions, and positions submitted by more than 866 organisations and citizens.
Citizens express concern that the current proposals are not based on data and analysis of the challenges in the education system and do not outline the expected benefits or possible risks of the reforms.
The signatories of the appeal also call on the MES to initiate and conduct a series of thematic discussions and professional debates on important topics and concepts in the law, as well as on other key issues for education that are not addressed in the proposed changes.
