"More than 800 million BGN should be provided for the maintenance of schools and kindergartens, which are related to the improvement of the school environment. By about one billion and 300 million BGN, the budget for secondary education - for schools and kindergartens - should be larger in 2025 compared to the budget for 2024. These are funds for the salaries of teachers and non-teaching staff, and for the maintenance of schools, kindergartens and other secondary education units. Now we are conducting negotiations with the Ministry of Finance, with the Ministry of Education and Science, we have recorded these requests in the memorandum of the National Security Council, which is extremely important for the protection of the budget," Yanka Takeva said.
She said there was also an "understanding in the political parties that the salaries of teachers in secondary education should not be lower than 125 percent of the average gross salary for the country". "We, with the money we want for wages, this percentage is no longer 125, but 140. And we demand that the politicians write in their programs that the wages of teachers in Bulgaria should be 140 percent of the average gross wages for the country, and in recent years we insisted that it be 125 percent. Salaries in higher schools were increased, and in order to have equality and justice, teachers' salaries should become 140 percent of the average gross salary, explained the chairman of the SBU.
Great shortage of teachers of mathematics, chemistry and biology, the average age of teachers is 52 years.
Now there is a shortage of mathematics, biology and chemistry teachers, and few students study these specialties, said Yanka Takeva. She noted that these are very difficult specialties and the state, if it wants to have education, to have teachers and to have staffing of the education system, the salary of the teachers should be 140 percent above the average gross salary, said the chairman of the SBU .
She noted that there are over 92,000 pedagogical specialists in the country - teachers and principals, from kindergarten to 12th grade.
There should also be an increase in the salaries of the non-teaching staff, as provided for in the Collective Labor Agreement, said Yanka Takeva. According to her, in the big cities - Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, it is very difficult to find assistant educators, cooks and other support staff, without which kindergartens and schools cannot function because of their low salaries.
The main priority now of the SBU is related to the budget, and our other priority is the training of teachers in higher schools. The ordinance for acquiring a teacher's license must be changed so that the training of future teachers is adequate for today's and tomorrow's times, said Yanka Takeva.
In her words, there should be more practical hours, as well as more hours for personalized training. This is a new approach that we talk about very little, and it is extremely important. There should be teacher training not only for personalized learning, but also for educators to be able to work in an environment of digitization of the educational process and artificial intelligence. These are the innovations that enter education.
The qualification of the teachers is also very important, which must be changed, because "teachers do not want to be trained in something that they were taught at the university, but they want innovations," said the chairman of the SBU. Takeva noted that Bulgarian teachers are very innovative and creative, they are responsible for their profession and for students and children in kindergartens.
Curriculum related policies also need to change
According to Yanka Takeva, the policies related to curricula and educational content should also be changed. It is good that they are being worked on, but it is a very difficult and long process, she noted.
"The Bulgarian education system must educate students in patriotism, citizenship and responsibility - before the state and before the people. And there must be very serious changes in civic education, which forms the attitude towards the state and state institutions, and gives personal motivation to young people to be successful", said the chairman of the Bulgarian Teachers' Union.
The staffing of the educational system goes through three main factors. The first of them is related to the good preparation of teachers in higher schools. The second factor is for the supporting qualification, and the third - for the positive school environment, in which teachers go to work with love, and this is related to the increase in wages and working conditions in schools and kindergartens, commented Yanka Takeva.
More hours of practice for the future teachers, the funds for their training also increase
The total number of pedagogical specialists in all educational institutions in the system of pre-school and school education in Bulgaria is 92,619, the press center of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) informed BTA on the occasion of the World Teacher's Day, which was celebrated on October 5.
Of all these pedagogical specialists in schools and kindergartens in our country, there are 4,299 principals, 82,785 teachers, and 5,535 other pedagogical specialists.
Of the total number aged up to 35, inclusive, there are 13,889 pedagogical specialists. This is 15 percent of the total.