With graduates only seventh grade does not make a modern economy
The group net coefficient of registration of the population in the education system – the number of students, attributed to the entire population in the age group, has been considered in more detail. The statistics offer two alternative calculations on this indicator, one according to the specific educational degree and the other – according to the age group.
The state received a good 3.53 for its care for children
In the above educational degrees, expectedly, enrollment decreases. There is a visible reduction in the high school stage – from 91.4% to 89.6% between the school 2021/22 and 2024/25. However, the most significant reduction in school education is the average – from 87.5% to 84.7% or by almost 3 percentage points within four years. Consideration of the age indicator leads to a similar conclusion.
The regional breakdown also largely explains the dynamics. While in areas with the best functioning school education systems – those of the capital, Smolyan, Blagoevgrad, Veliko Turnovo – the share of the high school in the high school is over 90%, in Sliven it is below 60%, in a number of other areas – Dobrich, Haskovo, Sofia, Yambol – about 75%; In other words, one fourth in them for high school does not study for one reason or another.
The Minister of Education criticized Sofia for insufficient scope of children in pre -school groups
The outlined dynamics is largely expected – ultimately, compulsory education ends at the age of 16. The changes from 2019 also play their role, which allowed the completion of the « first high school stage » after the end of the tenth grade and the establishment of « United » schools that do not include the last two years of school education. It is also worth mentioning the coincidence of the start of the trend to a decline in the enrollment coefficient with the pandemic period, when the systematic measures to improve the scope of school education were terminated. Due to the regional distribution, there is apparently a more serious problem with the scope of the high school education system in the regions with a higher population than minorities.
The less enrollment of young people in the high school stage of education inevitably means less completed secondary education in the labor market in a few years. This is a problem for at least two interconnected reasons. According to the latest available workforce monitoring as of the first quarter of 2025, unemployment among average was 3.7%-almost four times lower than that of graduates of primary or lower education. The employment of people with secondary education is 71%, in those with a primary – 31%, and in those with elementary or lower – only 27%. On the reverse, the annual analysis of the employment of the Employment Agency is indicating less and less need for low education workers and without qualification. When people with low education and skills still find jobs, they are most often low-production and poorly paid.
Against the backdrop of the negative demographic dynamics, the chronic shortage of workers and the clear need to increase labor productivity to preserve economic growth, the shrinking of the scope of high school education should be seen as an important problem that must find its solution as quickly as possible. Future workers who are left without education today will not be able to unleash their full potential, and without the maximum qualified workforce, the hopes of creating a modern economy in our country are unattainable.
