15 years of “Notebook“ and 15 years of the state writing the same thing to children in Bulgaria: “Average 3“. Not excellent. Not good. Three. And not because of a lack of money, but because of a lack of will, vision and elementary statesmanship. While politicians argue about positions, institutions continue to produce poverty, anxiety and abandonment. This is clear from the independent monitoring “Notebook. What is the average success of the state in caring for children?“, conducted for the 15th time by the National Network for Children.
Every third child is at risk of poverty, the health system is inaccessible to thousands of families, and education is increasingly difficult to compensate for social inequalities. And yet, the rulers continue to talk about “priorities for children“, “for children - the wealth of the state”, but without being able to show a consistent national policy for children.
The scariest thing is something else - the topic of children is drowned in disinformation, fears and political hysteria. Instead of an expert conversation about reforms, society has been listening to suggestions and conspiracies for years.
The result is horrifying: Bulgaria still does not have a National Strategy for Children, even though it is legally obliged to have one.
A country can be measured by how it takes care of the weakest. And when you have poor success in caring for children for 15 years, this is no longer a statistic. It is a diagnosis of failure.
While politicians talk about a demographic crisis, the reality is that the state is systematically abandoning children and families. Every third child in Bulgaria is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Thousands of children do not have equal access to quality education and healthcare. Small settlements lack specialists, psychologists, speech therapists and adequate social support. Instead of long-term policies, we see chaotic “piecemeal” solutions that change with each new government.
The scariest thing is that we have already started to accept this threesome as something normal. And it is not. Because behind every assessment are real children – poor, abandoned, anxious, without prospects and without the feeling that the state is on their side. A country has no future if its children are not a priority. And Bulgaria still behaves as if caring for children is an annoying expense, not the most important investment.