– Many of the children went abroad with their parents, most often in Germany
– Schools in the neighborhood will be closed soon, elderly residents predict
Stolipinovo is empty. The streets in the otherwise lively neighborhood are almost deserted. Here and there you can see people in the market who buy the most necessary things. The schools in the neighborhood are also half empty.
“They reduced the number of children. “I live and work next to the Pencho Slaveykov school and I see that the yard is empty, and it used to be crowded,” explained 25-year-old Denis Usinov.
He says that he himself finished 5th grade and now this is causing him problems. He couldn’t get his driver’s license. He is ready to study, but he still has no time. And he was ashamed to sit on a bench with much younger than him.
“Many of us emigrated to Germany with our children,” Usinov added. This is the main reason why the schools in Stolipinovo are half empty.
“Between 10 and 30 percent fewer enter the class,” Stefka Simeonova, chief education expert in Plovdiv’s Iztochen district, whose ethnic neighborhood is located, told 24 Chassa. (See her interview.)
The head of the education inspectorate in Plovdiv, Antoaneta Pakova, assured that they would make an inspection. So far, she could not say how many students had been reduced. But he does not commit when they will be ready with the data.
With the naked eye in the neighborhood you can see that the children are few. On November 16 last year, when students from 1st to 4th grade were given the opportunity to return to school in person after COVID tests were provided, not a single student from Dimcho Debelyanov Primary School, Pencho Slaveykov Primary School, SU “Naiden Gerov” did not cross the threshold of the classroom. Then they gradually began to come, but the classes were very limited, say educators.
“Two of my neighbors went to Germany. After finding a job, they withdrew their children. Another family in our neighborhood intends to do the same, “Usinov said.
He himself lived and worked in England and Germany. “The children of migrants enroll in school immediately and their parents are monitored, otherwise sanctions will follow,” said Dennis.
Another resident of the neighborhood described a rather startling picture. I don’t know what numbers they give you, but I think about 80% of the children in Stolipinovo do not go to school regularly. Some of them went abroad with their parents. However, others are here, but they do not enter the class “, commented Orhan Shaban, who sells jeans on the market.
He added that there were still parents of girls who dropped them out of school after finishing sixth or seventh grade because they felt it was important to prepare them for marriage, not to study. He is adamant that this situation will continue until things get better in our country and people live better.
His friends, who have been in Duisburg for three years, withdrew their two children after being with their grandparents in Stolipinovo until recently. According to Shaban, both the authorities in our country and the teachers themselves were to blame for this situation, as they did not work hard to attract students to the class.
“It’s a shame my grandson is 15 years old and speaks German better than Bulgarian. Learn a foreign language in two years, “said Mehmed Fikret, 77. The boy was adamant that he did not intend to come here, as he felt better in Germany.
Mehmed predicts that one day schools in Stolipinovo will be closed, as there will be no students to attend.
Stefka Simeonova: Every second child cannot be found
We impose the lowest fines, but no one has paid, says the head of education in the “Eastern” region
– Ms. Simeonova, what do your observations show in the schools in Stolipinovo – are there fewer children and if so, what is the reason?
– Between 10 and 30 percent students have decreased. The fact is that many residents of the neighborhood went abroad. Some take their children and others do it later. Thus, the number of students, especially primary school students, has dropped dramatically. The data from the previous year speak eloquently.
– Is migration the only reason?
– She is the main one. But there are others – the fear of a pandemic not getting infected if they are let into class, as well as the reluctance of parents to send their children to school. Many of today’s mothers and fathers are of the uneducated generation, unlike their grandparents, who went to school regularly. For these parents, education is not a value. Mediators go around the neighborhood. Every second child was not found at the address. Neighbors explain that the parents went abroad. But none of them went to school to announce that they were leaving the country, nor to get a document while his child was studying. This is the reason why school leaders do not have this information.
– Is there no control mechanism?
– There is a platform “Safe and attended school”. I follow the children’s movement because I am on the scope committee for the entire Eastern region. 11,000 children are registered at the current and permanent address. This is an extremely large number compared to those children who are actually in the region and in Bulgaria in general. Teams go around and regularly report who is at risk, reports of visited addresses where teenagers do not want to go to school. But sanctions are not working.
– Don’t sanctions scare them?
“Here’s an example.” In 2019, we identified 275 children outside the platform who do not attend school regularly. We have imposed 51 acts of violation, of which only 16 have been served because the parents are gone, and in the end there is only one penal decree. The whole administrative procedure is meaningless because they cannot be found at the address. At the same time, we impose the lowest fine of BGN 50, but so far no one has paid. For m.g. we have prepared 44 reports. We only found two to serve the deeds.
– A lot of emigrants return to Stolipinovo in the summer. Can’t you find parents and children asking them where they are?
– The fact is that in the summer they come to have weddings, visit the town hall for administrative services. They just look different. Their stay in Western Europe has had a positive effect. There, the child can not go to school, because the parents are denied social benefits. They look good and speak politely. They try to help their relatives and neighbors. Even during the pandemic, they organized humanitarian actions in the neighborhood, which is good. They have integrated into societies where the rules are followed.
– Are there any absentees from SU “Naiden Gerov”, called Stolipin’s Sorbonne?
– There the reduction of students is the least – no more than 10%. Maybe because it’s high school, there are vocational classes and parents keep their children from graduating. There are slightly more people absent from Pencho Slaveykov Primary School due to migration. It is most sensitive in the initial courses.
Mediators trained by us on the Growing Up Together project also went abroad. One even got a high school diploma, said she really wanted to become a teacher. But he preferred Germany. She works, her children study. Another mediator went to France. Everyone is looking for a better life and I can’t blame them.
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