Bulgarian students study the least in Europe. The total number of their mandatory hours in classes I to X inclusive, equated to astronomical, is 7040. At the other pole is Ireland with 11,372 hours. Children in Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark have over 10,000 lessons. The average for countries in Europe is 8617 hours, and most countries are between 8000 and 9000 hours. This was announced by the press center of the Ministry of Education.
First-graders and second-graders study the least in Bulgaria – 411 and 429 astronomical hours per year, respectively. Our students in grades III, IV, V and VI are also several hundred hours behind their peers in many European countries.
The children here also have the biggest vacations in Europe – an average of 91 school days a year. Most of them are in the summer. During the active school hours they do not have classes for a total of 16 school days. The Bulgarian students from I to III grade have been out of school for the longest time – a total of 108 school days. For IV to VI grade the rest is a total of 94 school days. Students from 7th to 11th grade miss 79 school days.
For comparison, the average for Europe in the school year 2021-2022 is a total of 70 school days, 20 of which are distributed during the school year. Students have the least rest in Germany and Denmark – 53 and 56 school days a year, respectively. There are 16 other countries below the European average. The closest to Bulgaria is Romania with 85 days without classes.
In this situation, combined with problems in curricula and textbooks, it is not surprising that most Bulgarian students are increasingly unprepared and increasingly uncompetitive to their European peers. One of the reasons is that they fail to master and consolidate the teaching material at school – they do not have enough time for exercises, group work and projects, and their parents are forced to pay for private lessons.
Therefore, in parallel with the review of the curriculum, the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) has developed several options for changing the number of school days and the duration of vacations during the year. They are provided to trade unions and employers in the secondary education system. Their in-depth discussion is forthcoming. The proposals do not include sports schools whose school year has a different schedule, as well as the production practice of students in vocational classes.
According to the first option, the beginning of the school year remains on September 15, and the length of school time is increased by 10 school days for students from I to VI inclusive. If this proposal is accepted, the classes for children from first to third grade will end on June 15, and for students from IV to VI grade – on June 30. For other issues the schedule does not change.
The second option envisages the school year to start on September 7 for all students, except for those in sports schools, and its end will be extended for students from I to VI grade in the manner already described. In such a situation, the holidays for all students will increase by five days and will be more evenly distributed within the school time. The Ministry of Education and Science considers this option to be optimal.
The proposal in the third option is for the beginning of the school year to be on September 1, and for students from I to VI grade to study 10 school days more in June in the already described way. Then there would be 10 additional school days for vacation for all students to be distributed within the school time.
Each of the three options developed requires a change in regulations. It will be made once all proposals have been widely discussed with the social partners and other stakeholders. The discussions will include all related issues such as classroom air conditioning, the effects on the tourism sector and more.
The academic year 2022-2023 will start on September 15, as before, regardless of which of the proposed options is chosen.
Detailed data on the schedule of study time in Europe and Bulgaria, as well as on the options developed by the Ministry of Education and Science, which are proposed for discussion, you can see in the attached schedules.
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