The Minister of Education criticized Sofia for insufficient scope of children in pre -school groups
Education Minister Krasimir Valchev criticized the Sofia Municipality because of the insufficient scope of children in the groups for pre -school training in kindergartens and schools. Responding to a question from GERB-UDS MP Daniela Geneva, during the BLITS, control at the Parliamentary Committee of Education, he said that « we have only 78% scope of 4-year-old children » provided that the target value is 94%.
« The lowest is the percentage in the areas with the highest concentration of Roma children and Sofia, which has taken me out, which means that the mechanism does not work well enough in Sofia (The interinstitutional mechanism for the scope of children at school – ed.). I can strongly say it from personal observations. In Sofia and Sliven it is the lowest scope. We had conversations with the Sofia Municipality, they would be more engaged. It is also very important that the district mayors are, respectively, the directors of kindergartens, « Valchev said.
Starting next year, the focus of the Ministry of Education will be precisely on the cover of pre-school children (4-6 years) in the education system, he said with the argument that « children who have been covered more time in pre-school age have better results. » « In children from families who are not spoken Bulgarian, this difference is the greatest. and the Ministry of Interior. As a result of his work in 2023, for the first time, Bulgaria reported that prematurely eliminated schools were below the EU average – 9.3% with the average for the Union 9.5%. « We were always 13-14%, » Valchev reminded. « We also see an increased number of years in which children learn. If 10 years ago they learned 8 years ago those who drop out, now they study an average of 10 years. »
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At the moment, however, the Minister of Education is watching a retreat. « I see that when there is not enough impulse in the vertical institutions, the leaders of the institutions are not sufficiently engaged, the mechanism begins to work on inertia, there is one relaxation, and it is a tendency for any administrative or other public system, » he stated, and emphasized that it is very important to have a political level commitment. «
« If we have children from the education system in the meantime, we will have more excluded from society, more unfit for the labor market. The best way for us to live in a better and harmonious society is to have less excluded. Therefore, the work on the mechanism is so important, » Krasimir Valchev said.
The Ministry of Education and Science is to propose amendments to the Law on Pre -school and School Education, which will also allow the directors of educational institutions to issue criminal decrees for disagreement of compulsory training. These powers are now given to the mayors.
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« The fact is that we have very limited opportunities to punish when the right to educate a child of a child, » said Valchev. « We have regulated administrative violations under the Law on Preschool and School Education, 0.3% are imposed sanctions and 1% are collected. These are three ten -thousandth effectiveness of this mechanism. »
