The court suspended the long-discussed and denied by some parents integral mathematics exam in the 7th grade. This is clear from a ruling of the Administrative Court-Sofia City dated December 19, 2025.
It suspends the preliminary implementation of the order of the Minister of Education from August last year, in the part in which it was determined that the national external assessment exam in mathematics at the end of the 7th grade in the 2025/26 school year should be held in the form of a test that integrates 6 more school subjects: mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, geography and man and nature.
.The new format was attacked by parents who filed three separate court appeals. In their reasons, they stated that the Minister's order for the integral exam is unlawful and contradicts the principle of predictability in school education. According to them, by changing the format of the exam not within a reasonable time, the Minister treats students from different grades differently, which is unacceptable.
According to the order, the exam was to contain a total of 24 tasks, of which 18 tasks (with multiple-choice answers and with a free answer) testing competencies set as expected results of mathematics education; 6 tasks (with multiple-choice answers and with a short free answer) that are solved with the help of skills acquired through mathematics education, but also test competencies set as expected results in the other 6 subjects, and to have a total duration of 180 minutes. The goal of the Ministry of Education and Science was to strengthen training in other subjects in the field of natural sciences, in which we lag significantly behind the EU average.
The decision is subject to appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court within 7 days of the notification to the parties of its ruling.
The court announced that Minister Krasimir Valchev appealed the suspension of the order, but then withdrew his appeal. The case is scheduled for January 30th in substance.
After the decision, the exam is expected to remain with only math problems, as before. A new order from the Minister of Education will probably be needed.