site.btaFirst-graders Expected to Be 62,000-63,000 This School Year

About 65,000 children were born in 2017 and are due to start first grade in the new 2023/2024 school year, but the number of first graders is expected to be around 62,000 to 63,000 because there are children going abroad with their parents. Most of the children start first grade at the age of seven, but there are some who become first-graders at the age of six and a half at their parents' request, head of the Bulgarian Union of Teachers with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), Yanka Takeva, told BTA in an interview. 

According to the Education Ministry, some 57,000 first-graders started school in 2022.

There are about 94,000 teachers in the country, including principals and educators.

At the end of September, teachers will get their salaries increased by 15%, but retroactively - from January 1, 2023. In some schools, the salary increase could be 16-17 percent, Takeva, adding that that the starting teacher salary is now BGN 1,709.

There is a shortage of teachers in math, informatics, science, Bulgarian language and literature, as well as primary school teachers. 

It is very difficult for a student to graduate in mathematics or computer science, which are not easy majors. Very few young people graduate with majors in physics and information technology. They find employment mostly in companies, where they get five times higher salaries than in education, said Yanka Takeva.

That is why is a huge shortage for teachers in the natural sciences and it is good that retired colleagues who are involved in education are coming back to teach in the education system, she added.

Around 2,500 retired mathematics, informatics, biology, chemistry and physics teachers return to school every year to teach students, the teachers' trade union leader said.

Currently there are no proposals to close schools, but this is done by decisions of municipal councils, Takeva said. She reported that there are no new schools opening this year, but there are many new kindergartens opening in Sofia. The construction of two new schools in Sofia has also started.