We cannot guarantee 100 percent trouble-free conduct of the matriculation exams in Sofia, as the transport strike is expected to continue next week, but we have formed a headquarters and we must be ready for the negative option. This was said in "The Day Begins with Georgi Lyubenov" BNT Education Minister Krasimir Valchev.
"We have 11,000 matriculation students in Sofia. The other day, the principals asked the parents what proportion of the students cannot move, currently about 300 have said that they cannot. I am very pleased with the high level of mutual assistance - parents, transport companies, taxi companies got involved. Thank you, it's important for us, but it's also important for the children".
The dates of the matriculation exams cannot be changed, as they are related to applications and are not only in Sofia. A later start time for the exam is not being discussed - it remains at 8:00. The most important thing is for the students to be on time.
The Mayor of Sofia and the Minister of Interior are also ready to cooperate. Buses have been organized from neighboring districts of Sofia. It is being discussed that there will be no blue and green zones and that parking will be possible in the school yards.
"We will collect telephone numbers, addresses, routes of all students who need to travel. Each child lives in a different place and is randomly assigned to another school, not their own," the minister explained.
There are isolated cases of bursars who cannot reach the schools, as the directors provided them with transportation even before the Ministry of Education and Science formed a headquarters.
Relatively few students did not make it to class last Thursday and Friday - again we observed enormous mutual assistance between people, Krasimir Valchev said. According to him, however, mayors abuse their right to declare non-school days.
"There are two cases with Sofia, one was for Sofia Day in September, and the other - last Wednesday. The mayor announced these non-school days very late. However, we recently declared a non-school day due to the extraordinary circumstance "students to take a break from school". In other cases, the municipal holiday falls on one day and four non-school days are declared on this occasion.
This way we lose between 20 and 30 school days a year - we also have the most holidays, as well as 15 days decided by parents. We also have a large number of students who do not go to school regularly, said the Minister of Education.