The Trade Union "Education" to the "Podkrepa" Trade Union insists that the national external assessment in grades 4 and 10 be immediately abolished, and that the acquisition of primary education be returned after grade 8. The organization distributed a statement on the priorities in the education system, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio.
From the "Education" trade union to the "Podkrepa" Trade Union state that their position on the priorities in the education system is based on dozens of studies.
Therefore, they insist that the acquisition of primary education should return after the eighth grade, and not until the seventh, as is the case now, but for this, the possibilities of primary schools for accepting students must be examined and employment of all teachers must be guaranteed.
According to the organization, in the primary stage - from the first to the fourth grade, the attainment of knowledge, skills and competencies must be guaranteed. For this purpose, the assessment should be returned and a single repetition of a student should be restored in the event of obvious language and social deficits.
The trade unionists argue their demand for the immediate abolition of the National External Assessment in the fourth and tenth grades by saying that, in their opinion, it is "meaningless statistics for the system".
According to the "Education" trade union, a key priority is the demographic crisis in the teaching profession. They point out that Bulgarian teachers are among the oldest in the entire European Union.
According to data from the Ministry of Education and Science for the 2023/2024 academic year, the average age of a Bulgarian teacher is 48 years old.
Almost half of all teachers in the country (49.1%) are 50 or older, and nearly a third (31.3%) are over 55 years old.
A policy focused solely on increasing pay is proving to be a trap. The problem is the stressful work environment, the opinion says.