It is a great joy to raise children. The appearance of a child changes your whole world. My personal observations are that time disappears, childhood returns for parents. This was stated by the former acting Minister of Education and Science, Prof. Sergey Ignatov, in the program “Face to Face“ on BTV.
The responsibility of society for caring for children is great. They are a product of the new time. We are still at the beginning of this culture. Bulgaria has certain successes. However, both successes and complete irresponsibility are observed. There are families who believe that the school should take care of everything and that it is responsible for everything, he pointed out.
We have a fairly serious critical mass of such families. If we have a failure, it is related to the communication between families and educational institutions. It is a very complex process and requires constant dialogue. Where it is present, we have very serious success, emphasized Prof. Ignatov.
Our children are overloaded, from the point of view of making every new thing that appears accessible to them. However, they cannot absorb all the content. The main problem is that our children study for exams and the entire process is aimed at that. The problem has been solved in many countries. It is important how to weave testing into the educational process. The point of this evaluation is to see how the system works and improve it. We can make the system so that children do not know that we are testing them, explained the former Minister of Education.
Everyone gets hysterical before exams, even teachers. In addition, the entire load on mathematics and the Bulgarian language is as if other subjects are not being studied. English is no longer a foreign language. In addition to it, 1-2 more languages must be learned. Learning a language expands the world for children, noted Prof. Sergey Ignatov.
Children need rules and boundaries. When they are younger and there are no rules, they feel insecure. The modern Bulgarian school has nothing to do with what I studied in. Children now study in a science fiction environment. The trend is good, he explained and gave the STEM classrooms as an example, he said.
According to him, we have problems with communities that cannot understand why children need to go to kindergarten. The world is developing at a breakneck speed and children must keep up with it.
The failure in PISA is not because children are not prepared, but because they are not prepared for this type of testing. If we prepare specifically for it, we will be very good. We are not that illiterate. On average, Bulgarian schools are good, but we have many problems that need to be solved daily, emphasized Prof. Ignatov.