Bulgaria has all chances to become the leader in education in Southeastern Europe, according to Alberto Rodriguez, Senior Education Specialist with the World Bank, cited by Darik radio.

Rodriguez was in Sofia Monday to present a report about the state of Bulgaria's education and three proposals of the WB for the new Education Act.

The first one involves a system to certify school principals and to request they renew these certificates every two or three years.

The second aims at increasing the role of the parent-teachers associations to become the most important partner of the school principal, offering advice and making decisions.

The third WB proposal is to assess students regularly as a way to find out which schools perform well and which need additional help. The tests should include only 3 to 4 of the most important school subjects such as math, Bulgarian literature and a science, according to Rodriguez.

"This takes time and effort, but it will pay back and Bulgaria will become the country with the best education system in the region," he said.

On her part, Anelia Andreeva, Director of the Institute for Education and Qualification with the Bulgarian Education Ministry, stated the proposals are almost certainly going to be included in the new law, in addition to annual assessment of the entire administration of each school and sanctions for failing principals – from recommending courses he or she should take to dismissal in case the latter do not yield results.

According to Andreeva, the new Act would keep the right of school principals to determine themselves the number of staff they need and classroom sizes while teachers would be free to select their own teaching methodology. Pre-school eduction would focus on Bulgarian language, the expert pointed out.

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