We will not put metal detectors in all schools. This was said by the Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev at a briefing in Ruse, quoted by Nova TV.
“After the incident in the capital's mall and school, I realized that a large percentage of students from these communities go around with knives every day and teachers confiscate them from them every day. It is clearly a matter of culture, in this case “local”, and it needs help”, the minister commented.
He explained that the conference is to promote the campaign for the introduction of the euro, but he used the opportunity to visit as many areas as possible and hold meetings with the pedagogical community and the regional government.
“We will support schools that request it, but this issue will not be resolved with metal detectors and technical measures alone”, explained Valchev.
According to him, the main function of the education system is educational, but it has very long-term effects. “We cannot promise that there will be less aggression from tomorrow. It exists in every society, but if we strengthen the educational function, we may have fewer aggressive youth and fewer such cases”.
“We rely on the educational system to educate children and form relationships and attitudes in them. In this way, it can help us fight aggression”, explained Valchev.
According to him, it is a fact that in recent decades we have weakened the educational function of the Bulgarian educational system. “That is why, with the changes in the curricula and guidelines, we are trying to tell teachers that it is important to educate”.
“The teacher has a difficult task in unequal competition with powerful information environments. I was surprised to see a video game in which the goal is to kill the most people in the most cruel way. When we add the films and content that young people watch, this leads to the creation of attitudes towards violence”, explained the minister.
According to him, there is a big problem with young people and with the fact that teachers fail to establish order in the classroom. “That is why with the law on preschool and school education we have proposed additional measures regarding students. The support will remain, they met with criticism that the children will only be punished, but when one teacher cannot establish order in the classroom, the right to quality education of all other students suffers”, commented Valchev.
“We have many measures that are in the system, projects are financed, there is a mechanism for responding to aggression and the relevant team is immediately activated. But all these actions are subsequent, the issue is in prevention, and it is more about educating our children”, the minister believes.
According to him, we must be clear enough in our attitude towards aggression, to dose the presence of children in aggressive information environments, to allow them to watch fewer programs and content related to violence. “But this is a more difficult task”.
“Forming attitudes does not guarantee that every child will counteract cases of violence. As parents, we must also limit them. I do not transfer responsibility, it is shared”, commented Valchev.
“Last year, we set ourselves the task of training all pedagogical specialists who work with students from 3rd to 12th grade to talk about the topic of drugs. The education system cannot counteract their spread, but it can create attitudes in children not to use them”, he explained.
According to Valchev, every teacher must be prepared to talk to children. “It turns out that we cannot talk to them as parents either because of generational differences or because we are unprepared”.
“For this reason, we are starting training. First, people are being trained who will train all the other teachers. We are talking about 55 thousand teachers and specialists. Then they will hold thematic conversations and classes with children on this topic. External people will also enter the educational institutions who can contribute. There will also be thematic meetings with parents”, he commented.
“We do not have specific data on whether drug use has increased, but from indirect data we see that this is a problem that is not only not improving, but is getting worse. It is the same with all addictions”, said Valchev.
He explained that we have problems with social networks. “Screens are one of the most damaging addictions. On social networks, children see the most content, they waste their time. Screens have an addictive effect and damage the brain”.
"There are many programs at the moment. Among them is “Just Say “NO” - famous personalities meet with hundreds of students in each city and speak against drugs. But the education system cannot cope through campaigns. It copes through the many hours of effort of teachers,” the minister believes.