Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science proposed integral tests for 7th-grade final exams, announced Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Vulchev.
He said the suggestion would not lead to significant changes with the integral testing seeking to motivate the students to better prepare in the field of natural sciences. Vulchev said that they tend to underperform in these disciplines and only a small portion of the children choose the subjects for their final examination.
Including only Bulgarian language and math in the final tests is far insufficient, stressed Vulchev adding that this is the main reason why natural and social sciences would also be included.
“We believe social sciences would complement well the examination in Bulgarian language and natural sciences the math exam”, said Minister Vulchev.
He said the changes could be introduced as early as school year 2022/2023.
Vulchev also commended on the issue with the time deficit for proper teaching of the schooling material due to coronavirus lock-downs. He said that 60% of the school time is planned for teaching and 40% for exercising. Whenever there is a delay like in the current situation, teachers try to make up for it at the expense of sufficient time for exercises which could be demotivating to many students, said Vulchev.
Math classes in 5th and 6th grade are especially troublesome and the Ministry is planning to divert more teaching time for addressing the issue.
The Ministry also plans to exclude some redundant concepts and facts from the natural science teaching material with no changes in Bulgarian language and math being planned.
A new school subject “Digital technologies and creativity” will be introduced and will be taught in 5th, 6th and 7th grade.
Environment subject will be reamed to Homeland Knowledge but the teaching material will remain the same.
The Ministry also seeks to reorganize full-time schooling in order to provide a smoother transition from preschool to grammar-school.
