The Ministry of Education and Science will not write a unified textbook for Bulgarian language and literature, history and geography, but will maintain the competitive approach in the selection of textbooks, Minister Georgi Valchev said in an interview with bTV Novinite. He pointed out that the goal is for the best textbook to be determined by a committee of teachers, university professors and representatives of the Ministry of Education, without the ministry taking on the role of author.
Valchev also said that the change will not happen soon. According to him, the horizon is long and the earliest deadline is 2028, because the new curricula must be written first. Until then, a mechanism for discussing and selecting textbooks will be sought.
The minister argued the idea by saying that teachers' freedom of choice also has a “dark side”, and according to him, competition between publishers has lost some of its original meaning. He also said that currently there are too many textbooks in the system, which in his opinion sometimes help, but in their current volume are more likely to harm.
The topic of textbooks comes against the backdrop of the poor results of Bulgarian students in the international PISA study. According to OECD data, the results of 15-year-olds in Bulgaria are lower than the OECD average in mathematics, reading and natural sciences, and the share of students below the minimum literacy level remains high. The OECD also points out that Bulgaria is among the countries with a clear decline in educational results over the last decade.
In the interview, Valchev also commented on other measures for the school environment, including a new system of incentives and sanctions for student behavior, a personal development card and a new position for a personal development specialist. According to him, the idea is to strengthen the relationship between teacher, student and parent and to seek earlier prevention of problematic behavior.
The minister also said that over 1,800 psychologists and over 800 pedagogical specialists already work in schools, and the new measures should come into effect from the beginning of the second term.
Sources: bTV Novinite