site.btaBulgaria Hosts Meeting of OECD Implementing Education Policy Network

For the first time, Bulgaria is hosting the international meeting of the Implementing Education Policy expert network of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Ministry of Education and Science said on Monday. The meeting is being held for the 31st time, and representatives of over 20 countries from all over the world are participating in it. In April this year, Bulgaria will also host the first OECD global report on social and emotional skills of students.

"It is an honour to be the host of such an important meeting of one of the most important programme of the OECD, the one on indicators for educational policies", stressed Education Minister Prof. Galin Tzokov at the opening of the meeting. 

The Minister explained that the assessed indicators provide an opportunity to analyze and compare the different educational systems and are the basis for planning changes and reforms. He recalled that this year, Bulgaria was included in the OECD's Education Overview annual report for the first time. "The findings in the report were also the basis for making the decision to offer free higher education for all university and doctoral students from the state quota," said Tzokov. He explained that precisely the researched data on the number of Bulgarian youth who do not work or study and the share of university graduates were strong arguments for proposed legal amendments. "The data on school education, which the OECD highlights, is another reason to launch the development of a vision for a complete change of the curricula," the Minister stressed.

In recent years, the tendency of an increasing average age of teachers has been reversed. The average age is currently 48 years old, while it was 50 years old in 2019 and 55 years old in 2012, said Deputy Minister of Education and Science Natalia Miteva, who participated with a presentation on the development of the education system in the country. She explained that the goal of the Ministry of Education and Science is to increase the share of young teachers under 35 to 32% by 2030. She also pointed out that there is a political consensus to maintain the level of teachers' remuneration at 125% of the average salary in the country.

OECD Implementing Education Policy expert network meetings are held regularly, usually twice a year. The indicators used to measure progress in the field of education of individual countries are determined there. As a result of the meetings, a report, titled "Education at a Glance" is prepared on the state of education in different countries.