The Ministry of Education and Science officially proposes specific changes to the curricula for the high school stage of the 2026/2027 academic year. According to the new proposal, mathematics classes will increase by 25 percent, Bulgarian language and literature by 12 percent, and natural sciences by 22 percent.
The changes will be implemented at the expense of reducing the hours spent studying foreign languages. This is a significant development of the previously announced plans of the MES to restructure the curricula in high school education.
Minister Krasimir Valchev has repeatedly emphasized the problem with the current balance of classes in high schools. "Children are currently learning much more foreign languages in high school than mathematics and science, even more than Bulgarian language and literature", he said earlier this year.
The new percentage increases are a concretization of these plans and show the clear direction of educational policy towards strengthening core subjects.
The changes will be introduced in stages, and are expected to first affect the eighth grade in the 2026/2027 school year. The ministry is actively working on the preparation of the new framework curricula and the corresponding curricula.
According to Minister Valchev, it will not be necessary to print entirely new textbooks, but rather to restructure the existing content. "We propose that the textbook be a divisible set of topics", he explained.
The new proportions reflect the Ministry of Education's drive to improve the results of Bulgarian students in mathematics and science, which are considered critical for the country's future development. Ten times more high school graduates choose to take the matriculation exam in a foreign language than in mathematics, which is seen as a worrying trend.
The changes are part of a broader education reform that also includes new types of tasks in national external assessments that link mathematics to practical applications in the sciences.