"We Continue the Change" will once again submit to the National Assembly proposals for amendments to the Preschool and School Education Law, as according to the party, the system needs modernization and more support, not additional financial burden.
"The rulers cut off money to 300 schools. This is enough to create stress in a system that needs peace. This has never happened before and shows the priorities of the government. They are in no hurry with the bloated administration, with pensioners in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and with the huge salaries in the security structures and the judiciary. But they are cutting back on education where the greatest support is needed - without thinking about the consequences," said the chairman of the PP parliamentary group and member of the parliamentary committee on education and science, academician Nikolay Denkov.
The proposals include introducing a principle for "ethical, safe and educationally oriented use of artificial intelligence", which would create a regulatory basis for the use of AI technologies in education while ensuring the protection of personal data and equal access.
The project also provides for a new section on early childhood development with closer coordination between educational, health and social institutions, as well as the creation of a permanent interdepartmental structure for the development of national policies in this area. A National Framework for the Quality of Early Childhood Education and Care Services is also proposed.
Among other measures are the preparation of a national vision for inclusive education, expanded support for children with special educational needs through comprehensive assessments and individual plans, as well as more active participation of parents and children in the decision-making process.
The PP proposes that religious education of a confessional nature should remain freely elective, and that the evaluation of schools should also take into account the "added value" through the results of national external assessments and matriculation exams.
The draft law also includes the introduction of four-year mandates with a maximum of two consecutive terms for the directors of state and municipal schools and kindergartens, the expansion of the information system with data on nurseries and an official definition of the term "propaganda" as "the dissemination of information in a biased or misleading manner to promote a particular cause or point of view without being based on scientific knowledge in the given field".