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For nearly five hours the Committee on Education discussed the draft law on pre-school and school education introduced by the Council of Ministers. The draft was passed on first reading with 11 votes ‘pro’ and 4 – ‘against’.

The session was held on April 12 and led by Ognyan Stoichkov - Chairman of the Committee on Education. Besides the representatives from National Assembly in the Committee, the session has been attended by the Minister of Education Sergei Ignatov, the Deputy Minister Milena Damyanova, the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Education Krasimir Valchev and a number of citizens - representatives of educational institutions and NGOs. Spokesperson on behalf of Amalipe was Deyan Kolev – chairperson of the organization.

The draft law puts child and student in the center of the educational process and allows for cross-sectoral interventions, stated Minister Ignatov in his introductory speech. He introduced the chief priorities, among which is the reduction of school dropout rate and achievement of educational integration. To this purpose, the draft envisages a gradual introduction of full-time organization of the learning process to 7th grade, compulsory preschool education from the age of 4 and a lot of other measures. Minister Ignatov emphasized the innovative elements of the draft, which according to officials from the Ministry of Education will transform the Bulgarian educational system into an up-to-date system tailored to the needs of students and the currently changing labor market demands. The complete list of reasons behind the new Pre-school and School Education Law can be found at:http://www.mon.bg/opencms/export/sites/mon/left_menu/documents/documentsproject/2012/motivi_proekt_zakon_obrazovanie.pdf

During the discussion, members of the GERB party unreservedly supported the draft law. In favour of the draft law, albeit with due amount of reserves to certain texts, spoke a number of MPs from the Blue Coalition and Attack political party. Valentina Bogdanova (Bulgarian Socialist Party) and Aliosman Imamov (Movement for Rights and Liberties) criticized the draft law in general and refused to support it at first reading but they expressed willingness to take part in subsequent discussions, stating that the draft contains worthwhile texts as well.

Active part in the discussion have taken representatives of educational institutions and NGOs. It turned out that within the short time span since the submission of the draft to the National Assembly for consideration, 90 opinions have been expressed. Most of them are in favour of the draft law but certain texts are subject to criticism. Special attention has been rendered to the law by representatives of Schools for Children with Special Learning Needs, Schools for Children with Disabilities, and Resource Centers, who appealed for preservation of the structures. Many posed the issue of the need for special attention to problems related to education in small municipalities and places of living. Most of the proposals are considered relevant, not concerning the law in general but referent to specific sections of it. They are due on second reading of the draft at which they will be taken into consideration, summarized Ognyan Stoichkov – chairperson of the Committee.

In his speech, Deyan Kolev emphasized that for the first time a draft law addresses the issue of educational integration of minorities and does it rightly - meaning integration not isolation, separation or segregation. Among the newly introduced principles of the educational system are ‘equal access’, ‘non-discrimination’ and ‘fostering of ethnic diversity’. The draft envisages also a national standard for intercultural education. A requirement for each school is to elaborate and agree on its own program for educational integration and dropout reduction whereby targeted funding for the implementation of these programs will be provided beyond the delegated budget, thus giving hope that they will be fulfilled in practice. Of significant importance is that in its latest version the draft bans the formation of ethnically based classes in ethnically mixed schools (Article 96) and of groups along ethnic lines in mixed kindergartens (Art. 60). This should be supplementary to another ban which shall also be incorporated into the law forbidding the establishment of schools along ethnic lines in settlements with mixed population, emphasized Kolev. To this claim agree all Roma organizations and it is considered that thus, the legal basis for initiation of desegregation in Roma neighborhood schools will be laid. It does not concern the villages, where on account of demographic factors only Roma or Turkish children are available – it concerns rather the school specifics in big cities where a   ‘Bulgarian’ and ‘Roma’ school exist in proximity to each other – a phenomenon in discord with the national traditions in education.

The first working draft version of the Pre-school and School Education Law has been finalized in April 2010, and it did not address in any way the theme of the educational integration of Roma children. At national meetings in May and June 2010, Roma organizations joined around common demands which had been accordingly submitted to the Ministry of Education for consideration. Subsequently, Rumyan Setchkov and Deyan Kolev have been invited to join the working groups preparing the draft and the standard for civic and intercultural education. Gradually, most of the demands of the Roma organizations were incorporated into the draft law. The full text of the draft can be found at: http://parliament.bg/bills/41/202-01-20.pdf