Bulgaria's Education Minister Daniel Valchev is to join Friday a discussion over the obligatory matriculations.

Students, high school and university teachers as well as rectors will also take part in the event, which is to go under the topic "The Matriculations - Questions That Are Often Asked".

The main issue to be debated is related to the ways of guaranteeing students' equal opportunities as far as these exams are concerned as well as the evaluation methods.

The forum has been initiated by Open Society Institute in Bulgaria after thousands of students staged protest rallies against the matriculations in a number of other cities in towns across Bulgaria last month.

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.

Students from 16 towns around the country gathered at a press conference in October 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.

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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