News

About 206 000 children aged 5 to 18 are not in kindergartens or schools and will be sought out by 1103 teams across the country with more than 11602 experts - teachers, social workers, community staff, mediators, etc. The first task we set up is that most of these children can return to school. By mid-October, representatives of institutions will walk through the addresses of the students, who are out of range and will do everything in their power to make them attend school regularly. The next important steps are to ensure that these children stay in classrooms and receive quality education. There is already a national phone for signals for students out of range - 080010112.

These were some of the things announced at a press conference on measures to include dropouts from the education system. It took place in the Council of Ministers on 1 September. The press conference was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev, Deputy Ministers Denitsa Sacheva and Tanya Mihailova and experts from the Mechanism for joint work of the institutions on enrollment in the educational system and prevention of dropping out of children and students at compulsory school age.

The number of 206 000 uncovered is obtained by detecting between the information systems for the born in Bulgaria and the ADMIN system of the Ministry of Education and Science for the students in Bulgarian schools and kindergartens. This number does not include 99 000 children who have gone abroad with their families and this is registered by the Border Police. It is very likely that 206 000 children missing in the classrooms will also be abroad, others will "appear" in the detection of all systems, but the number of dropouts is large, a fact that  became clear during the pressconference. Their return to school is one of the government's key priorities and will mobilize the resources of all systems, the participants stressed.

Vice Premier Donchev added that the commitment to raise teachers' salaries will be fulfilled and that special attention will be paid to teachers working with children from vulnerable groups. Linking social payments with child attendance will be an important measure that we will strictly apply, stressed Donchev: the requirement for children to attend kindergarten and school will be a condition for obtaining a very wide range of social payments that have so far had no connection with attendance. We talk to the legislature about criminalizing the suspension of children from school.

Minister Valchev stressed that pre-primary education is key to the scope and special measures will be taken in this direction. He pointed out that changes to the system of delegated budgets are planned so that the funding will not be based on a mere number of pupils and that the "hidden dropout" will be decreased.

More information about planned measures will be available at www.amalipe.com

In October, the Ministry of Education will propose amendments to the Preschool and School Education Act, which will allow a major reorganization of the delegated budget system and the extension of compulsory pre-school education to 4-year-olds, announced Minister of Education Krassimir Valchev at a meeting with the Heads of the Regional departments of education, held on August 30 in Veliko Tarnovo. Delegated budgets will be changed so that funding will not be based solely on the number of students, but will also take into account educational status of parents and vulnerability of students, as well as the remoteness of the district center. Greater funding will be provided to schools located in rural communities and training pupils from vulnerable groups so that they can recruit motivated teachers and provide quality education. The specific changes will be discussed with the municipalities and other stakeholders, and our ambition is that the changed financing system will enter into force as early as 2018, said Mr. Valchev. He added that pre-school education is the most effective measure to prevent dropping out, and so it is important to start at four years of age. 

The Minister of Education outlined as one of the main challenges facing the system the restructuring of the network of primary schools. We will carefully observe whether the passing of eighth grade in secondary schools will not increase drop-out. Each seventh grader must be enrolled in the first high school stage and the teams will monitor for this. We will also see how many schools will have problems with the formation of the norms of lower secondary teachers. With a change in the Regulation, we allowed a teacher with incomplete norms to receive a full salary within a year and this should be used, Minister Valchev reminded. 

Education and full coverage is one of the main priorities in the government program and we have a very strong political will to do so, stressed the Minister of Education. He paid special attention to the necessary measures to implement the Decision of the Council of Ministers 373 / 05.07.2017 on the establishment of a mechanism for joint work of the institutions on enrollment in the education system and prevention of dropping out of children and pupils in compulsory school age. Teachers can now require child benefits to be provided, e.g. such as shoes and clothing, if they consider it necessary to ensure attendance. From 2018 the MES will provide funds for transporting secondary school students from the settlement to the nearest school providing training on the chosen profession or profile not only within the municipality but also in neighboring municipalities. The ministry seeks the possibility of eliminating any fees for the preparatory groups in the kindergartens because compulsory pre-school education is not only obligatory but also free of charge. We are now financing the children in the preparatory groups by 30 BGN more per month than the 3- and 4-year-old children in the kindergartens, which covers everything but lunch, but it is a fact that most municipalities do not proportionally reduce the fees for the preparatory groups, said Valchev. 

Deputy Minister Denitsa Sacheva added with information about the dropouts and the children out of school range. About 206,000 children aged 5 to 18 are not in kindergartens or schools and will be sought out by 1103 teams across the country with more than 11602 experts - teachers, social workers, community staff, mediators, etc., she pointed out. The status of another 10000 is to be specified and another 99,000 children have gone abroad with their families and this is registered by the Border Police. Deputy Minister Sacheva specified that these data are revealed after a comparison of the data provided by the Directorate-General for Civil Registration and Administrative Services to the persons born between 1997 and 2012 and the data from the national information system of the Ministry of Education and science that contains data for all students. They are likely to change and clarify, but even if the number of children, who are looked for is, for example, 150,000, it is still very large. 

Search for the participation of mediators, NGOs and all who have real work and authority in the community, Deputy Minister Sacheva addressed the work of the scope teams. The work of the teams will not end in mid-October, but will continue for years. Until the end of this year, it will not be paid in any form, and the means of transport will be secured by the budgets of the institutions. In the coming years a national program of the MES budget could be implemented.

Deputy Minister Sacheva stressed that the ministry would not allow over-concentration of reintegrated students in the same schools or segregated "Roma" schools. For example, Sofia Municipality is committed to providing free transportation to schools throughout the city. 

Representatives of Amalipe Center were invited to the meeting, who introduced the Heads of RDE the experience of the "Every Student Will Be a Winner" program, which is realized in more than 250 schools with the financial support of the TSA. Teodora Kroumova stressed that in more than half of these schools there is not a single drop out. They have long implement many of the things that are currently planning by the teams in scope. Their experience is especially necessary because they have practically done what needs to be done in many other places.

Daniela Hristova, Principal of the Joint School "P.R. Slaveikov "- Djulyunitsa village presented a specific experience on detention of Roma children at school. She emphasized the key importance of attracting and engaging parents.