site.btaNearly 500 Applications for Distance Learning Submitted - Education Minister Vulchev

September 17 (BTA) - Nearly 500 pupils have applied for distance learning, of whom some 280 for health reasons and 220 for personal preferences, Education and Science Minister Krassimir Vulchev said here Thursday. He was talking to journalists at the 4th National Conference Education 4.0 at Sofia's National Palace of Culture.

Vulchev said he expects a big part of schools to provide compensatory teaching, which includes several alternatives to classroom learning. One option is for pupils to observe the classroom lessons via virtual connection. Another option is for teachers to offer additional online lessons, and a third option is for teachers to give pupils tasks and control their performance, he explained.

The Education Minister also said he expects a small part of pupils to join the so-called distance centres. It will become clear next week how many of the existing 15 such centres will have to start working, with Vulchev expecting one or several to begin operation.

The Education Ministry sets itself the target to make available in all schools a wi-fi network that covers the entire territory of the school, and not just part of it, Vulchev noted.

"I cannot blame the management of Sofia's 55th Petko Karavelov Secondary School, where it was established that eight teachers have tested positive for coronavirus. I will look into this case," Vulchev told journalists. He was asked whether the said management had made a mistake by allowing a teacher with COVID-19 symptoms prior to the opening of the school year on Tuesday to communicate with colleagues and pupils on September 15.

The Education Ministry has been informed about an eleventh-grader in Stara Zagora's Romain Rolland Language Secondary School with coronavirus, Vulclev said, taking a question about data on other schools with infected teachers and pupils in addition to those already announced in Sofia and Rousse.

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