From the next school year (2025/2026), the exam after the 7th grade in mathematics will become integral and include natural sciences, and after 2 years (2026/2027) the exam in BEL will also change - with more geography.
This was stated by the Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev on bTV, quoted by FOCUS.
He specified that currently the exams also contain such an element, but only in some tasks, and the change aims to increase them.
"Similar mathematical tasks exist at the moment, and in recent years we have been taking steps towards expanding practical tasks - this year they were conditionally 40%. Our goal is not to make it difficult for students, but to make them learn with understanding and be able to apply their knowledge – because that's where they fail, we see it in the PISA exams – they cannot turn the conditions of the tasks into a mathematical expression“, said the minister.
He illustrated what the change in the mathematics exam from next year would look like, specifying that if the tasks are 24 in total, then 6 of them will be integral (with concepts from natural sciences such as physics, chemistry and astronomy).
For example, the task may be related to temperature or climate.
The plan is for the BEL exam to also become integral – by including elements related to history and geography.
Although he stated that private lessons will always exist, Minister Valchev admitted that part of the goal of the innovations in the exams after the 7th grade is precisely so that fewer children will need to attend them.
"Ultimately, the educational opportunities of the child are important. Changes are not a matter of courage, it is a matter of difficulty. It is difficult to make private lessons less profitable, but if the exams are designed so that less can be learned, this will reduce the burden of private lessons and make them less profitable“, said the Minister of Education.
"There have been two incorrect theses so far - one is that we are now introducing religion classes. Religion has always been present in the Bulgarian education system, it is present throughout Europe, with small exceptions - perhaps like Belarus or North Korea. The second is that we are introducing religion mandatory“, said Minister Valchev.
And he assured that “no child will study religion against their will, the only thing we are doing is expanding access – if now 2.5% of students had this right, now it will be much more“.
“Phones out of school“ – this will happen immediately after the adoption of the Law on School and Preschool Education, according to Minister Valchev.
“Phones will remain for use for medical needs or for educational purposes. This will also make it easier for teachers – they will not collect the phones every hour, but only once – at the beginning of the day”, he specified.
The fees for paid education in higher education institutions in our country have increased dramatically. The minister explained this with several reasons:
"First, the main reason is that the state increased funding both last year and this year. Secondly, the quality component also increased – specifically for chemistry, physics and mathematics at Sofia University, the university received the most funds per student from a state order. There is a text in the law that says that they must charge a fee that corresponds to the funding of the state order, so as not to use the funds for a state order to finance paid education – so that there is no so-called "cross-subsidization".
Krassimir Valchev explained that he is about to submit a proposal to the parliament to reduce fees.
See what else the Minister of Education commented on in the video attached to the material.