Bulgarian non-government parental organizations (NPO) have announced they are against the amendments to the Education Act because, which will oblige children to start pre-school at the age of 5.

The amendments, adopted on first reading on July 21, envision obligatory pre-school for children at the age of 5 and a tenfold increase of the fines for parents who keep their children at home.

According to the parents, the changes are “discriminative” to those who want to raise their children by themselves and are in contradiction with the European convention for human rights and with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The open letter, which parents have sent to different state institutions, states that the too early age, in which children separate from their parents, can have a negative effect on their psychological development.

According to the parents, this is increased by the lack of closely situated pre-schools with canteens and a place for an afternoon nap in some regions.

The letter also states that the expected integration of more Roma kids in the education system will probably fail because of the specifics of the communities they live in.

The parents have also accused of populism the Education Minister, Sergey Ignatov, because, in their words, he has deluded the society that the Education Act needed changes.

The NPOs believe that the EU does not apply any pressure for such amendments. They have also stated that the full-time education will burden the state budget without having provided finance for next year.

The parents have suspected financial interests in the “rushed”, in their words, voting of the amendments.