Sofia. We have resources to provide enough teachers for this school year, said Minister of Education and Science Krasimir Valchev, Focus News Agency reports.
In the coming decades there will be a shortfall in all sectors and all professions, the minister said. “The young people entering the labour market will be only two-thirds of those who leave it. We expect the biggest labour shortage in the education system in 10 years,” he said. In his words, the initial data show that all teaching positions for this year will be filled. “Some positions will be filled by so-called unlicensed teachers. In other places subjects will be combined. Others will have pensioners continue to teach for year or two after their retirement age. The shortage will only deepen in the years to come, but so far we still have reserves. We have teachers who have left the education system or who have not joined it yet,” Valchev said, noting that even in small villages with population decline there is still a resource of teachers. 
He further said in addition to increasing teacher salaries, the ministry is considering other options, such as retraining in teaching. “We are planning to launch a national programme at the end of this year as sort of alternative route into teaching – people who are not teachers but want to teach will be able to start teaching and get a teaching qualification in a year,” said the minister of education.