site.btaSofia Hosts Annual Meeting of Bulgarian Schools Abroad

Caretaker Education and Science Minister Galin Tzokov opened the annual conference of the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad (ABSA) here on Monday. Tzokov presented the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) Probuda Award for 2024.

Recipients included Dr. Irina Vladikova, the Director of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian-Austrian school in Vienna, and Petya Tsaneva, President of the Association of Bulgarians in Spain "Balkan", and Board Chair of ABSA. The "Probuda" Awards for Bulgarian teachers abroad, established the previous year, recognise significant contributions to the development and preservation of Bulgarian language and culture.

Irina Vladikova, director of the Bulgarian-Austrian School, has been teaching Bulgarian language and literature there since 1992. She is among ABSA's original founders back in 2007. Her contributions to the education of native languages abroad have been recognised with several prestigious educational services awards, which include the Neofit Rilski honorary award in 2011 and Paisii Hilendarski golden plaque.

In 2003, Petya Tsaneva established the Bulgarian Sunday School St. Ivan Rilski, the first of its kind in Madrid, Spain. Between 2005 and 2008, Tsaneva played a pivotal role in launching six additional branches across various Spanish cities. In 2010, she founded another institution, the First Bulgarian Sunday High School Yordan Yovkov, also in Madrid. To this day, Tsaneva provides support to more than 50 Bulgarian schools across Spain.

"Over the past year, the Ministry of Education and Science has made attempts to enhance support for these schools, educating more than 38,000 Bulgarian children." Tzokov said. The state institution backs these knowledge centres organizationally, methodologically, and financially, employing 2,000 teachers across 43 countries on six continents. Nearly BGN 16 million have been allocated to fund education in Bulgarian language and literature, history and geography this school year, as well as supplementary activities focused on preserving and learning about Bulgarian traditions and folklore.

The Ministry of Education prioritizes supporting Bulgarian schools abroad, establishing them as hubs for preserving Bulgarian language and culture. Consequently, new curricula for pre-school education in Bulgarian and Bulgarian as a second language are under preparation. "These projects offer a unique perspective on structuring and implementing a contemporary educational system designed to develop skills in using the Bulgarian language," Tzokov said, adding that the publication of these projects for a public discussion round is pending.