EDUCATION IN BULGARIA

Education in Bulgaria through the years, Educational System in Bulgaria and It‘s History

BULGARIA is an interesting country rich in history, nature, cuisine and many more. It has a population around 7milion people. The Education in Bulgaria is on high level and it wealthy on literacy. In tradition, Bulgaria has very high knowledge and literacy with usually trying to follow best study destination countries, schools and universities.

Education in Bulgaria is in the hands of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. Since 1990  or after the fall of the socialist party), primary education that is compulsory includes 1 or 2 years of preschool education, before children start primary school.

Education is compulsory until age of 18.

After highschool education is completed, students can decide if they want to continue with their studying or to start working.

Education At State Primary and also Secondary Schools is Free of charge, except for the state and private higher education schools, colleges,  universities and that although offer students scholarships.

Bulgaria‘s Education System has been changed many times throughout the years.

In 1998 enrollment in the primary grades was 93% of eligible students, and enrollment in the secondary grades was 81% of eligible students.

With The Gender Ratio of female to male students in primary schools was around 0.97 and the ratio in secondary schools was 0.98. Because of the prior Bulgaria’s low birthrate during the After communist period, total primary and secondary school enrollment was in a slightly decreased level in the beginning of the post-communist period, that was causing some  difficulties such as,reductions in teaching staff and facilities.But at the same time and private schools and colleges appeared and their number quickly increased by 10times during the 1990s.

Bulgarias higher education system was recreated in the mid 1990s.

Between 1995,2002 and the number of university graduates increased from 33,00050,000. In2002 in higher learning 42 universities and colleges were in operation and 215,700 students were enrolled.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

The Bulgarian Educational System consist of 4 levels:

1 Level

Preschool education

Pre-primary education is to embrace children between 3 and 67 years old and who attend kindergarten optionally, with the requirement that prior to starting school, children must attend two years of pre-school education.

These 2 years of mandatory pre school education may be attended either at kindergarten or in preparatory groups at primary schools.

During the school year 2007/2008 74.8% of children aged 3–6 years were enrolled in kindergartens.

2 Level

Primary education

Elementary education consists of grades 1 – 7 includes primary school grades 1 – 4 and junior high school/ middle school grades 5 – 7.

Children usually start primary education at age 7,but may be start from age 6 upon their parents requests.

Students Get A Certificate for Primary Education and Certificate for Elementary Education are obtained upon successful completion of grade 4 and 7 respectively. High schools use grades from the Certificate for Elementary Education as a major admissions criticasion.

3 Level

Secondary education

Secondary education choices selective comprehensive high schools and vocational school. The admission to comprehensive schools is based upon grades from entry exams after 7 grade usually in literature and or mathematics as well as grades in junior high school.

Students can enroll in high school after the successful completion grades7 or 8. Sometimes those who want to study languages,mathematics, or informatics in-depth apply to high school after 7th grade. Students graduating from high-school must successfully complete 12 Grade and sit matriculation exams in Bulgarian language and Literature, as well as one or two subjects of choice. They obtain a Diploma of Secondary Education with GPA composed of their grades from mandatory and specialist modules in 11 and 12 Grade and the grades from the matriculation exams.

4 Level

Higher education

After the graduation of 12 grade and the use of the Diploma and the GPA, students can enroll for other higher education.Types of higher education institutions are Universities, Colleges and Higher Schools with special lessons. Universities,as in most countries worldwide, have three stages Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees.

Undergraduate stage lasts for at least 4 years and graduate stage lasts for 5 years after completion of secondary education or one year after obtaining a bachelors degree.

The third stage of higher education results in achieving a PhD Degree. Specialized higher schools offer degrees in one or more areas of science, arts, sports and defense.

Usually the names of these institutions shows the area of specialization. Colleges are former semi higher institutes. Some of them are part of universities and use their Storage, equipment and facilities.

GRADING SYSTEM

The Bulgarian Educational System also has a simple grading system.

The grading system is based on numbers where 6 is the best and 2 is the poorest grade a student can achieve where 6 is excellent 5 is very good 4 is good 3 is average and 2 is poor.

There are points, mainly used when grading tests which give specific points per correct answer.

The grades are seperated into 100 points and any mark over 50 is considered part of the more than enough. For An example 5,50 is excellent 5,75 is also excellent but 5,25 is pretty good. 6.00 is the highest possible mark. Generally anything under 3,00 is considered a fail.

HISTORY

Early history

The first schools in Bulgaria were opened in the 9th century by the King Simeon The Great. Two important linguistic literary church schools that taught the Glagolitic and Cyrillic alphabets to the christianized Bulgarian slavs were also established in that period at Ohrid and Preslav, with the one in Ohrid having more than three-thousand students at one point.

Modern history

Modern schools began opening in the early 19th century firstly for boys and then for girls. Those schools gave only basic education, such as reading, writing, and basic arithmetic.

Students who wanted to continue their education had to go study abroad. After Bulgaria overturned the Ottoman rule in 1878  it started sticking the foundations of its educational system. In 1878 the government succseed the Temporary Law on National Schools. This law made the establishment of schools in villages. However many peasants did not let their children go to school because they thought education was not relevant to peasant life. Furthermore several universities were created in the period of 18781918.

Educational process in Bulgaria was disrupted during the Balkan Wars and World War 1 . By the mid 1920s normal function of schools have made a comeback.