site.btaEducation Minister Tsokov: Pupils Will Be Allowed Up to 15 Days off School for Family Reasons

Pupils will be allowed to miss up to 15 days of school for family reasons with a note from the parent, said Minister of Education and Science Galin Tzokov in an interview with the Bulgarian National Television on Thursday. Currently, pupils are allowed up to three days off with a request to the form teacher and another seven, but only with the sanction of the principal of the school concerned, the press centre of the Ministry of Education and Science said.

"We have been discussing this issue with various parents' associations in recent months. Sometimes a child has to stay away from school due to illness or a family problem. That's why we are making a change in the Inclusive Education Ordinance - we are increasing these family-related absences to 15 for each school year," Minister Tzokov explained. According to him, the procedure for their use will also be eased, as the application for all eligible days will only be submitted to the form teacher. This will also relieve school principals, who until now had to authorise some of these absences.

Minister Tzokov announced that a standard for the quality of education will be developed in the coming weeks and months. It will allow for self-assessment of individual educational institutions as well as an external view of how they are doing on specific quality indicators. "We will have an insight into which schools are doing well, which are doing worse, and which are not doing the job," the Education Minister explained.