School Education Bill
Introduces
Dual Education, State Financing for Private Schools


Sofia, February 5 (BTA) - Parliament adopted on first reading a
Pre-school and School Education Bill moved by Milena Damyanova
of GERB and a group of MPs. The Bill envisage introduces dual
education and a possibility for state financing of private
schools.

Participating in the vote were 161 MPs, of whom 107 voted in
favour, 32 were against and 22 abstained. The Bill was supported
by MPs of GERB, the Reformist Bloc, the Patriotic Front and the
Bulgarian Democratic Centre. BSP-Left Bulgaria and Ataka were
against. The MPs of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
abstained.

Parliament turned down a Bill moved by Valeri Zhablyanov and a
group of MPs , which was backed by MPs of BSP-Left Bulgaria.

The Pre-school and School Education Bill proposes a new
structure of the school education system: lower primary level
(1st-4th grade), upper primary level (5th-7th grade); lower
secondary level (8th-10th grade) and upper secondary level (11th
and 12th grade). The two secondary levels offer possibilities
for a change of the choice, pre-university training and
vocational training in the last two years, the authors of the
Bill say in their reasoning.

There will be a public council at each school, while the
National Inspectorate of Education will make an independent
external assessment of the quality of education in the schools
and kindergartens.

First to third-grade students will not be given marks but will
receive only performance assessment. It is proposed that school
children up to the 4th grade will not repeat the same grade for
poor performance.

Modelled on the German dual system, vocational secondary schools
and schools will be able to provide vocational training in the
upper secondary level (11th and 12th grade) in the form of
training through work. This is a partnership between the
vocational secondary school and an employer, which couples
training in a real working environment where students are
employed by a company with education in a vocational secondary
school or vocational school.

Centres in support of personal development will be established
to develop and apply intersectoral policies and to integrate
care for children and school students. Some of the new centres
will comprise the existing auxiliary units and resource centres,
while others will be set up by transforming special needs
schools. The municipalities will finance the centres in support
of personal development, which is an important new development.

Damyanova said that state financing would become available to
private schools and kindergartens as well. She explained that
this would improve access to education and boost competition
among the education institutions. This will also guarantee the
implementation of the State's education policy in private
schools and kindergartens.

Education Minister Todor Tanev said education is a national,
strategic priority, including with regard to national security,
and declared his Ministry's full support for GERB's Pre-School
and School Education Bill. He did not overdramatize the fact
that it had been drafted by MPs and not by the Ministry, which
was noted as a weakness by the Reformist Bloc.

Tanev said the Ministry stood behind GERB's bill because it
defines education as a national priority and the focus is on
developing the personality of the child and the school student.
He approved the greater autonomy of the pre-school and school
education institutions, which are given the right to develop
additional syllabi. "Without liberalization we cannot be abreast
of the times," he said. He also backed the proposed improvement
of the financing and control system.

Tanev criticized the National Education Bill moved by the
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), saying that it did not fully
meet the requirements of the contemporary education system. The
Education Minister said the Left's proposal for compulsory
education up to 18 years of age could not be backed.

Tanev stressed, however, that it was up to the MPs to choose one
of the two philosophies. He said the Ministry would participate
actively in the streamlining and discussion of the bills and
would help to align the Act to the state education standards.

Lyutvi Mestan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms
(MRF), expressed satisfaction with the new structure of
education proposed by GERB, with compulsory education ending
with the 10th grade. Mestan said early dropout from school was
one of the scourges of society and education, adding that more
than 80 per cent of those children are Roma. He said the
national external evaluation system did not reflect the real
situation, and raised the issue of municipal school financing.
The MRF also objects to what Mestan said was an express law
which guaranteed that school students would study their mother
tongue as a compulsory elective for at least three classes a
week.

Roumen Gechev of the BSP-Left Bulgaria said the Finance
Ministry's opinion on the bill did not specify how much it would
cost to finance private schools. Left-wing MP Filip Popov
expressed a doubt that providing a level playing field to
private and state-run schools was a valid argument because
private kindergartens and schools are registered as for-profit
merchants.

Rossen Petrov of the Bulgarian Democratic Centre criticized the
proposed closure of resource centres but approved that money
follows the student.

The Patriotic Front backed their partners of the majority in
Parliament and also argued in favour of a single national
education system. They called for a definition of the status of
Bulgarian schools abroad.

Ilian Todorov of Ataka expressed his parliamentary group's
concern over what he said was the planned opening of religious
schools for the purposes of the various religions. PK/TK,DD








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