Students from southern Bulgaria's town of Petrich are to gather in front of the Municipality building on Wednesday to rally against the obligatory matriculation exams.

The protestors called on the youngest students to join their rally, as they will have to face the same problem in few years.

The rally follows such an events that have been organized in a number of other cities in towns across Bulgaria in the past few weeks.

A total of 16,622 students have signed an on-line petition against the matriculations. There are at least ten such forums on the Internet.

The students have recently said they are not adequately prepared for passing such exams because of the current school program.

They stand against the introduction of the obligatory matriculations also because they believe this way the graduating students are deprived from equal opportunities.

"Matriculation exams will be held and the students know this fact for years," Education Minister Daniel Valchev said categorically after the previous protest of the youngsters, staged in front of the Education Ministry building in downtown Sofia.

Students from 16 towns around the country gathered last month at a press conference aimed at attracting the public attention on the issue.

They have united in an organization called The Class of Unity.

"Obligatory matriculations are unneeded, subjective and are not a relevant way to assess students' knowledge and abilities," the participants in the press conference said.

If the Ministry of Education does not abolish the obligatory matriculations, parents of the students are ready to launch a legal suit against it.

Until now graduating students had to take their matriculation exams in literature and maths only if their marks from the five years in high school in those two subjects were below B.

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