Bulgarian Education Minister Todor Tanev announced on Friday that the salaries of teachers were likely to increase in the autumn.

Tanev reminded that the increase in teachers’ salaries always happened in the autumn and expressed hope that this year would not make a difference, he said in an interview for private NOVA TV.

The minister relied on Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to fulfill his promise of finding additional BGN 20 M to be allocated to the salaries.

Regarding the scandal with the purchase of the answers to the matriculation exams, Tanev clarified that this was due to administrative violations and not information leakage from the ministry.

The minister explained that there were more than 10 000 quaestors supervising the exams and it was possible for a hundred of them to have been involved in the violations.

He warned that the manner in which matriculation exams are designed will be changed next year.

Tanev admitted that there were instances of copying and cheating at the matriculation exams with 84 completely identical pupils’ works being identified.

As regards the recent incident of a 14-year-old schoolgirl beating up her teacher, the minister said that most schools were experiencing this problem.

According to him, the ties between the family, school and the society had to be reinforced, while the parents should become more involved in the pedagogy process.