Students will have two long breaks in the spring - nine days in early April (from April 3 to 11) and ten around Easter and St. George's Day (from April 30 to May 9), which allows for full rest and a better balance between days off and school hours.
This is provided for by the school time schedule, which has been approved and published on the website of the Ministry of Education and Science.
This year, the Ministry of Education and Science conducted a wide discussion, including proposed alternatives that parents, teachers and interested parties could discuss. Based on the opinions received, final changes were made, which reflected the majority of the comments to eliminate the gaps in the discussion of the possibilities for merging around holidays.
That is why May 5 and May 7 will be non-school days for students from 1st to 11th grade. This allows for a longer break around Easter and the Day of Courage, and in practice students will have two longer breaks during the spring period.
Traditionally, May 25 will be non-school days, the day after the feast of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian alphabet, education and culture, and Slavic literature. Thus, around May 24, four more days without classes will be added.
The spring vacation for the 12th grade will be from April 8 to 11, as was proposed in the schedule at the end of July, and May 5 and 7 will remain school days. This is important to ensure time to form the grades for the completion of the last high school year and to prepare for the upcoming state matriculation exams.
For matriculants, the school year is shorter (until May 13), and therefore preserving every school day in the last weeks is essential for its successful completion. In order to comply with the legal requirement for the number of school days during the school year, the two non-school days at the beginning of May will shift the end of school classes by two days.
Thus, students from grades 1 to 3 will finish on June 2 (Wednesday) instead of May 31 (Monday), and those from grades 4 to 6 on June 16 (Wednesday) instead of June 14 (Monday). Students from grades 7 to 11 will graduate on Friday (July 2) instead of Wednesday (June 30).
In order to improve the balance between school days, non-school days and exams, the national external assessment in BEL at the end of grades 7 and 10 is also being moved to Friday (June 18) instead of June 16 (Wednesday). The mathematics exam will be on Monday (June 21) instead of June 18, as in the initially proposed schedule.
These days are non-school days for all other students. This gives a longer gap between the two exams and at the same time - a longer break for students from the other grades, by merging the non-school days with Saturday and Sunday.
And the coming school year will begin as before - on September 15. The autumn and Christmas holidays remain unchanged from the schedule proposed at the end of July - from October 31 to November 2 and from December 24 to January 3, 2027, respectively.
The days off between the two school terms will be from January 30, 2027 to February 2, 2027. The dates of the state matriculation exams (May 19 and 21) also remain unchanged.