The new 2025/2026 school year begins today in over 2,300 schools in the country, with about 57,000 first-graders, with a total of over 716,000 students and 95,500 teachers, reports BTA.
The enrollment of first-graders is currently ongoing, because the so-called Mechanism for the Coverage of Children in the Education System is working. There are children who have not yet been enrolled. Therefore, we expect about 57,000 to be first-graders in the new 2025/2026 school year. This is less than in previous years, but it is a projection of general demographic trends, Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev told the Bulgarian National Radio yesterday.
Over 2,300 schools in the country are opening their doors today to welcome their students. By Saturday, over 55,000 first-graders had been enrolled in them, the press center of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) announced. The total number of students from first to twelfth grade who will cross the school threshold is over 716,000. Over 95,500 pedagogical specialists will work in kindergartens and schools, of which about 74,000 are in schools and about 20,000 in kindergartens.
The new school year began on September 1 in 405 Bulgarian Sunday schools in 43 countries on six continents, the Ministry of Education and Science recalled.
Minister Valchev to open a new school year in 2 schools
The Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev will open the new school year in two schools today. On September 15 at 9:30 a.m. he will visit the 119th Secondary School "Acad. Mihail Arnaudov" in the capital's "Iztok" neighborhood, and then from 10:30 a.m. he will be a guest at the 200th "Father Paisii" Primary School in the village of Lozen.
Later in the day, from 2:30 p.m., Minister Valchev will participate in a working meeting at the "Naiden Gerov" Secondary School in the "Stolipinovo" neighborhood in Plovdiv, where he will talk to the teams under the Mechanism for the Coverage of Children in the Education System who work at the school.
About the renovations in schools
This year, more renovations are being made in the summer and nearly 1,500 schools and kindergartens were subject to renovation activities because we had more funds. Projects to build a modern STEM environment are being implemented in all schools - these are the so-called STEM centers, science classrooms, separated into a single complex, Minister Krasimir Valchev told the Bulgarian National Radio yesterday.
He announced that under the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, 50 schools are undergoing a complete renovation. Student and student dormitories are also being renovated. We also have a program for the construction and expansion of schools and kindergartens. In schools, the goal is to switch to a single-shift training regime, and in kindergartens - to overcome the shortage of places.
We have a program for the construction and renovation of gyms and sports fields in schools.
Around 250 renovations in schools will not be completed, but some of them are being completed, and this figure is approximate. 22 schools will start the school year in other buildings, and some of them, even in three buildings, but we have helped everyone to have a place to start the new school year, the minister explained.
About the idea of not studying in two shifts and starting school hours later
The main prerequisite for starting school later is not to study in two shifts in schools. Eight years ago, when we started to implement this goal and reduce the number of schools in two shifts, these schools were 360. Now they are 226, and when we implement the program, they will decrease to 180. This is the second program for construction and extension, and construction of schools, said Minister Krasimir Valchev.
According to him, schools in two shifts also decreased with the regulation of admission. Research shows that if students get up later, their motivation to learn and their educational results improve, the minister noted.
The biggest problem is in Sofia and over 80 schools have a two-shift regime. There is a lack of terrain, but we are working to build schools. I called on schools to talk to parents and teaching staff about whether it is possible to start school later, but this is not possible where there is a two-shift regime. Some of the remaining schools that do not have two-shift teaching have made decisions to start classes later, explained Minister Valchev.
Changes in external assessment for seventh and tenth grades
In the new school year, the national external assessments for seventh and tenth grades in mathematics will also include tasks integrating other subjects.
The Ministry of Education and Science published the models of the national external assessments for the 2025/2026 school year a few days ago, including sample tasks.
As before, these exams are taken at the end of the fourth, seventh and tenth grades, with the aim of diagnosing the individual achievements and progress of students, and monitoring the educational process in order to improve the quality of education.
There is no change in this year's exam formats for fourth graders compared to last year. Those in Bulgarian language and literature for seventh and tenth graders remain the same.
The Ministry of Education and Science has already publicly presented sample tasks for the national external assessment after the seventh and tenth grades in mathematics, and the published models also include additional ones to help students.
The tests from the national external assessments for the seventh and tenth grades in mathematics will include six tasks from the natural sciences, which students will solve using mathematical knowledge. Together with them, the total number of tasks in the national external assessment exam will be 24 for the seventh grade and 18 for the tenth grade. In order to feel calm and have enough time to understand the conditions of the tasks, the working time will be increased by 15 minutes for seventh graders (so the exam will have a total duration of 180 minutes), and for tenth graders - by 30 minutes (their total time will be 120 minutes).
The six tasks from natural sciences will include basic knowledge and competencies related to biology and health education, chemistry and environmental protection, physics and astronomy, geography and economics, as well as from "Man and Nature" for seventh graders. Students will not be required to understand complex concepts, nor will they need to memorize the theory in the relevant subjects, but will be required to solve practical tasks that they will need and be useful in life.
The mathematics exam will remain the same, but it will require basic concepts from natural sciences - what is power, voltage, acidity, watt, kilowatt-hour, volt or pH. These are practical things that need to be known, but definitions will not be required, not a single physical law or chemical formula will be required, the Minister of Education assured. Our goal is for students to learn the basics with understanding and I would like parents to see these tasks that we have published. By the end of the month, there will be an entire directory on the MES website and it will be seen that these are easy tasks and there is no point in private lessons, explained Minister Krasimir Valchev.
There will be electronic health and preventive cards for children at school
All children and students who have undergone preventive examinations after January 1, 2025, do not need to do new ones before September 15. This was announced in early September at a briefing after the meeting of the Council of Ministers by the Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, the Minister of Health Assoc. Prof. Silvi Kirilov and the Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov. They together announced the creation of electronic health and preventive cards for children.
The convenience for parents is that they will not need to carry paper ones in educational institutions, as well as visit their GPs before the start of the school year. However, preventive examinations remain. If they have not been carried out since the beginning of this year, they must be done by September 30. Health professionals will have electronic access to the information from the health card, but only for children and students from the respective kindergarten and school.
The cards will contain information about the health status of children and students - height, weight, allergies, presence of certain diseases, current immunization status.
Around 1,801 health offices operate near schools. There will be 31 more of them this school year. There will be 52 more in kindergartens - a total of 1,629.
Minister Krassimir Valchev emphasized at the time that the policy of both ministries - education and health - is to expand funding and the number of health offices in order to ensure care for the health of children and students.
MES approved the schedule for school hours and holidays
At the end of August, the Ministry of Education and Science approved the schedule for school hours, which was previously published for public discussion. As the MES initially proposed, the days off for students and teachers will be from October 31 to November 3, inclusive.
The remaining proposals in the ministry's draft for the distribution of school and non-school days were also approved. The Christmas vacation will be from December 24 to January 4, inclusive, and the spring vacation for students from first to 11th grade from April 4 to April 13. For future high school graduates, the vacation will begin a little later - on April 8.
The break between the two terms will be three days - from January 31 to February 2, inclusive. The schedule provides for March 2 (Monday) to be a non-school day. It will merge with the national holiday on March 3, and there will be four non-school days for students - from February 28 to March 3.
Traditionally, the days of the matriculation exams will be non-school days. The mandatory state matriculation exam in Bulgarian language and literature is scheduled for May 20, and the second matriculation exam is scheduled for May 22. At the suggestion of the principals, in order not to disrupt the educational process for an entire week, the days of the matriculation exams and the national external assessments in the seventh and tenth grades - June 17 and 19 - will also be non-school days.
The Ministry of Education and Science recalled at the time that, at the initiative of the Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, changes were adopted in the Regulation on the Organization of Activities in School Education, which allowed for a more flexible distribution of school time and ensuring a more fruitful rest for students and pedagogical specialists. Thanks to the changes, the practice of the mid-term vacation being a single day in the middle of the week was discontinued.