(BTA) – Higher quality education at all levels in Bulgaria will be the main focus of efforts this year, Education and Science Minister Nikolay Denkov said, speaking at Tuesday’s presentation of the Ministry’s priorities in 2022.

 

The state will increase the coverage of children in kindergartens making attendance of three-year-olds free of charge across the country, not just in the current occasional municipality. Thus more children will be included in pre-school education, Denkov said.

 

As qualification and motivation are also prime factors determining the quality of education, teacher salaries will be raised to exceed by 25 percentage points the average salary in Bulgaria and the standard for costs of educational institutions will also be increased.

 

Vocational training will be another major concern, particularly making it more attractive to young people. Twenty-four vocational school hubs in close contact with business, each in their own region, will prepare the necessary specialists in the medium- and long term, Denkov said.

 

In higher education, the raising of quality of education is also on the agenda, including a series of measures against plagiarism and strict control of academic ethics.

 

Commenting on the requests of education trade unions for extended school holidays between the two terms, Denkov said it would be discussed this coming Friday at the Sectoral Council, but his suggestion was for nine days, between January 31 and February 7. The various reasons include the epidemic situation, the dissent among parents for in-class study and the expected peak of the ongoing coronavirus wave.

 

Otherwise, as of Tuesday, 3.6 per cent of teachers and 2.3 per cent of other staff are under quarantine, as are 2.58 per cent of the children and the values across the country are not high. Thus, there is no reason at all to close the schools./DT/BR

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Source: Sofia