Any urges to reform Bulgaria’s education system are met with an impenetrable stone wall erected by resisting academia.

This has been stated Monday by Bulgaria’s new Education Minister, Sergey Ignatov, in an interview for the bTV channel.

“What must happen in the Bulgarian education is that universities must turn into real universities instead of just a higher class of high schools that they are now,” Ignatov stated.

In his words, the corruption in the Bulgarian education can hardly be eradicated 100% but his team is nonetheless going to go ahead with reforms.

Ignatov said the first phase of the reform would affect the faculties because the scholars around the country were desperately aging. Then, the university system would have to decentralized

“The burden of the past is still upon us. There is just no desire for a change. There are education circles who are against any change,” Ignatov has complained adding that the education in Bulgaria must become more practical, and to stimulate the active participation of students.

He made it clearly that his team was going to work on reforming the High School Education Act in addition to the work on reforming the Higher Education Act.

Ignatov became Education Minister after his predecessor Yordanka Fandakova was elected Sofia Mayor in mid-November. He became one of her deputies in July 2009 with the forming of the new government of the GERB party.

Before that Ignatov, who is a specialist in archaeology of Ancient Egypt, was the President of the New Bulgarian University – the largest private university in Bulgaria.