Preparatory year to be introduced for students with poor command of Bulgarian

By the end of 2027, a preparatory year is expected to be introduced for students with insufficient command of the Bulgarian language, Deputy Prime Minister Ivo Hristov said in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT). “It turns out that nearly 40% of first-graders currently have poor command of Bulgarian, which can undermine their entire subsequent education”, Ivo Hristov said.

The Ministry of Education is proposing the introduction of a unified national toolkit for monitoring children’s development during preschool education. The change is part of a draft amendment to the Ordinance on Preschool Education, which has been published for public consultation, BTA reports.

The aim is to identify and monitor language difficulties from an early age and to provide objective information about children’s readiness for school before they enter first grade.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov