Finally! Compulsory 4-year kindergarten from 2023.

The state will reimburse parents for raising and educating children who are not accepted for lack of places in preschool and infant groups.

Kindergarten will be mandatory for 4-year-olds from 2023. At the beginning of the 2023/2024 school year, municipalities are obliged to create the conditions for the implementation of pre-school education. This was finally decided by the deputies with amendments to the School and Preschool Education Law.

Pre-school education will take place mainly in kindergartens, but also in schools that can accommodate more children. However, 4-year-olds will only be able to use the school facilities to study if there is no kindergarten in the village. In an epidemic situation, training will be available online, but parents will need to participate as well.

Online training during this year’s pandemic was not introduced for children in kindergartens because the ministry didn’t want to keep them in front of screens, Education Minister Krassimir Valchev told parliamentarians.

We want children to have competencies, but on the other hand we want to limit the use of devices and screens by children at an early age. We are really debating the use of devices, because when it comes to half an hour, there are studies that show that children spend more than 4 hours a day with devices. And this leads to a negative, not to say detrimental, impact on the intellectual development of children. Rather, we should ask parents to restrict children’s access to these devices, Valchev said.

IMRO will propose in the budget for next year to write that kindergartens are free and that the state will take care of the maintenance, it was clear in a statement by IMRO MP Julian Angelov.

E-learning is also introduced for students when, due to extraordinary circumstances, face-to-face learning is not required. Innovative schools also have the opportunity to teach face-to-face classes for students in grades 5-12, but up to 20% of these are taught online. At the request of the student or parents, the child may stay home and study online for up to 30 days. However, this will be done by order of the director and for health reasons or other valid reasons, certified by document. Up to 30 days, students will be able to study online and when there is an emergency situation, but the educational process at school is not suspended. The conditions for this to happen are that the child has a medical document that her presence at schoolgers her life and health, or the people with whom she lives.

However, in cases where the school cannot provide distance education, it can be organized by another school that offers such training or organizes distance education, the deputies also decided.

The state will support the payment of fees for meals in kindergartens. However, alimony may not exceed the average monthly amount established by the Minister of Education for alimony. The state will also reimburse parents for raising and educating children who are not accepted due to lack of places in preschool and toddler groups.

The proposal to the Minister of Education and regional departments for the educated to be able to control the boards of trustees, as well as the idea that the boards of trustees can spend the income from their property, including agricultural land, only activities for the benefit of schools and kindergartens. GERB deputy Vezhdi Rashidov was the first to come out against them on the grounds that the boards of directors have an obligation to present reports every year. The same was explained by the independent Spas Panchev and even stressed that for this purpose it will be necessary to have a unit in the Ministry of Education that deals only with this.

Income from agricultural land, for example, is not included in school budgets, however, Education Minister Krassimir Valchev said.

I’ll give you an example: the former mayor of the village, the former headmaster and other people related to the school can make sure that the funds do not go to the budget, Valchev said. He noted that more than 2,000 boards of directors currently own real estate on a particularly large scale.

This text is related to an important topic. It affects the property restored in the last 30 years of the Bulgarian schools, accumulated by our ancestors in the last centuries. 10 months ago, the National Assembly adopted a moratorium on the acquisition of school land under the statute of limitations of school boards, said IMRO deputy Assoc. Prof. Milen Mihov. He commented that the idea of ​​controlling funds was a good one and should be supported.

And so, in the end, the proposal was accepted.