Another debate in Bulgarian education. The "Education" union at the "Podkrepa" union proposes that high school graduates be exempted from matriculation exams if they have a GPA above "very good 5.00" from the last three grades of the high school stage. This way, they will be able to better prepare for university exams, the unionists believe. However, school principals do not agree. According to them, the current system of taking matriculation exams is very good and is tied to admission to higher education institutions, BNT reports.
The "Education" union conducted a survey among four thousand teachers and parents, which showed that over 74% of respondents support the exemption from the matriculation exam for students who have an average grade of over five in the last three years. The purpose of the exemption is for students to put more effort into applying to higher education institutions.
"This is something that will motivate students, which will give them an incentive in the last three grades to prepare, to have relatively high grades and finally, if they have managed to get exempt in this hypothesis, to be able to free up resources and free time for the next exam in a higher education institution," said the chairman of the "Education" Union at the "Podkrepa" Confederation of Teachers, Yulian Petrov.
According to Petrov, currently most prestigious higher education institutions accept students with their own exam, not with the results of the matriculation exams. If a student has an average grade of five in the last three years, and this does not suit him, then he will have the right to take the matriculation exam to increase his success, he also says. According to Diyan Stamatov, however, this system from the recent past should not be returned to.
"Things are radically different now, in my opinion, the DZI are one of the most successful practices of the current law and there should be no going back. Almost 80% of higher education institutions use the DZI grades for admission, which means that the grade is a good measure," said Diyan Stamatov, chairman of the Union of Heads of the Public Education System.
Stamatov also said that in order for our student to enter a foreign university, he must have a matriculation grade. There are also doubts about the weight of the average grade in grades 10, 11 and 12 in different regions of the country: "The grade in a small town and the grade, say, in the First English High School, cannot be compared, but the DZI show the same standards for the entire country", he added.
"I dare to say that Bulgarian teachers are objective, they are professionals, they have very good morals and these grades are relatively the same", pointed out Yulian Petrov.
The School Education Act is currently being revised and there are many proposals and ideas for changes to it. Whether this one will succeed in making its way remains to be seen.