Ministry of Education and Science of Republic of Bulgaria

National Pilot: 

The Ministry of Education and Science is the central public authority responsible for the planning, management, execution, and control of state activities at the kindergarten, school, and university level in Bulgaria. Furthermore, it takes full accountability of applying the current education law and all underlying legal acts that describe the implementation of education policies in the system. In recent national strategies and policy documents, the Ministry of education and Science recognized the increasing shortage of teachers due to the aging population in the profession. The National Strategy for Teachers’ Development 2014-2020 outlines as a priority the recruitment, retention, and professional development of teachers under 35 years (currently 6%). Moreover, it identifies strategic measures such as pre-selection of teacher candidates for pedagogical subjects, mentoring programs, teacher attestations (assessments) and on-going professional development for novice teachers, as well as alternative models for teacher qualification for people from different professional and academic backgrounds. Therefore, the current project will provide an experimentation base and statistical evaluation of pilot models around alternative pathways for new teacher recruitment, qualification, evaluation, support, and professional development, which will serve as evidence for future policy amendments. The Ministry of Education and Science will be closely involved in all project stages and will thus benefit from its outcomes and results in regards to the implementation of the national strategy for teachers’ development.

Team: