The Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science announced that it is ready to reschedule the maturity exams for later this year. This may be necessary if the ongoing school closure remains beyond May 5. Currently, Minister of Health, Kryl Ananiev, closed all school and universities until April 12. The dates for the exams remain unchanged for the end of May.
There is an ongoing debate within the European Union on how to approach the problem with this year’s university candidates. A mutual decision is yet to be made but even if the admission process is rescheduled for later this year Bulgarian students will have enough time to prepare.
Vulchev commented that Bulgarian universities are very well aware of the problem and that they already had a couple of discussions on the topic. For now, the dates for the external evaluation exams after 4th and 10th grade remain as scheduled by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education. In case the closure extends beyond May, they may also need to be postponed.
Vulchev reassured that the teachers will not be held responsible for poor performance given the extreme circumstances they had to teach.
According to the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science between 90 and 96% of the students in the country have successfully continued their education online. For the students who had no smartphones there were alternatives like sharing information on the social networks and chats clients and even personal visits by the teacher at home.
Valchev highlighted that all schooling staff has been provided with protective gear.
He believes that opening the schools by the end of the month is not out of the question but it all depends on how the pandemic is going to develop.
Translation: Ivaylo Yotov
