Sergey Ignatov has been appointed Education, Youth and Science Minister, the prime minister announced in parliament on Tuesday.

The new appointment comes after Education Minister Yordanka Fandakova was elected new mayor of the capital Sofia in a landslide on Sunday, replacing the former mayor and current head of government Boyko Borisov.

"I have just been proposed to head the education department and I am just as surprised as you. Boyko Borisov does it in such a way that you can not say no," Ignatov told journalists in parliament in his first comment after the news broke.

"The education sector is very difficult to manage. The systems needs reforms at all levels, to cut a long story short I am fully aware of the responsibility and burden that I am committing to now," the new minister pointed out.

He explained he plans to continue the policy started by his predecessor Fandak

Sergey Ignatov is an egyptologist, has obtained a PhD at Saint Petersburg State University and has specialized at the All Souls College in Oxford. Ignatov has so far served as deputy minister at the education department and as rector of New Bulgarian University.

He is author of several books, among which “The papyrus does not grow on rocks”, “Egypt of the pharaohs” and “The Body of God.”

Ignatov was born in 1960 in the Danube town of Vidin. Speaks English and French.

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