site.btaPoll Shows Mass Support for School's Role in Upbringing

105 ECONOMY - EDUCATION - REFORM - ATTITUDES - POLL

Poll Shows
Mass Support for
School's Role in Upbringing


Sofia, January 11 (BTA) - An Alpha Research survey on public attitudes towards education-related topics shows that 66 per cent of adult Bulgarians share the opinion that in addition to teaching, school should also upbring children. This understanding of school's role is dominant in all social groups regardless of the respondents' social and economic status, the analysts say.

The nationally representative survey was carried out among 1,027 adult Bulgarians between December 14 and 19, 2018. It is the first in a series of thematic surveys on attitudes towards areas of significance to Bulgarian society that Alpha Research will conduct this year.

The results show that while there is mass support for school's role in upbringing, the opinions vary significantly on how school should do this. The biggest share of respondents (35 per cent) think that children learn mostly from the behaviour of others, such as teachers but also parents, relatives, and public figures. Twenty-eight per cent of respondents believe it is not so much school as the wide social environment (social relations, values, models of success in society) that educates and could support - or sabotage - school's efforts in upbringing. According to 27 per cent of respondents, discipline is what educates children and when teachers do not know how to achieve it, this reduces the result of their efforts. Eight per cent think books, films and art play a leading role in children's upbringing.

These results show people realize clearly that not one but a complex of factors play a role in upbringing; school upbrings but cannot be the only one who does this. That is why the development of this widely supported idea and its transformation into a strategy require finding forms for greater accord between and mutual support for the efforts of parents, schools, and public institutions, the analysts comment.

After the Government at the start of its mandate made education a priority and announced a series of measures, such as an increase of teachers' salaries, modernization of the education process, and effective inclusion of children in the system, 49.6 per cent of respondents consider most successful the measures for education's digitization.

Parents attach great importance to the need of a thorough change of the education process so that it can adequately develop children's skills and meet the contemporary communication reality.

Around one-third of parents think that there are positive effects of the efforts to integrate children with milder disabilities in regular schools as well as to bring dropouts back in class. According to the analysts, both processes are complex and often experience ups and downs, therefore a complete recapitulation will only be possible after some time. Still, it is a fact that people acknowledging the importance of these efforts and being willing to support institutions in their implementation, is the first positive sign of change.

LN/DS