Public-private partnerships and extra-curricular activities are the key to improving the current state of education in Bulgaria, participants in a news conference for the third Festival of Bulgarian Education said at BTA on May 8.

The festival takes place at NDK (the National Palace of Culture) in Sofia from May 9 to 11, from 10am to 7pm every day.

This year’s theme is Partnership of Bulgarian Schools with Business, NGOs, Cultural Establishments and Sport Institutions. At the event, about 60 to 70 Bulgarian schools will have representation. Attendees will also be able to visit a media and a fashion studio; workshops for applied arts, flower arrangements and decorative elements, and fun with science and technology; chess, foosball, game, computer, learning office and debate centres; and a café – a resource/mental support centre of sorts – in which those in the field of education can exchange ideas.

Yurii Andjerkarski, director of the festival, said that partnership with businesses and NGOs was a very important step in the reform of Bulgarian education, because students needed to learn how to function in a market-driven society.

By including representatives from alternative fields, like environmental NGOs such as BikeEvolution (Велоеволюция) and Narodno Chitalishte Budeshte Sega (Народно читалище Бъдеще сега, meaning National Community Centre Future Now), a virtual centre aiming to encourage ecology, health and cultural heritage awareness, Andjerkarski said that this would help to get outside the “conservativeness” that is holding back possibilities for development in Bulgarian schools.

Yordanka Fandukova, Sofia deputy mayor for culture, education, sport and addiction prevention, also spoke at the news conference. She stressed the need for extra-curricular activities as a complement to schooling, as they tended to improve a child’s performance in school, and in life in general.

The daily programme of the Festival of Bulgarian Education includes forums, such as the forum on public-private partnerships in education (May 9, 1pm, NDK hall 7) and the forum on interactive education and learning (May 10, 10am, NDK hall 7); a roundtable discussion on aspects of partnership in the learning of foreign languages (May 11, 10am, NDK hall 7); a concert (May 9, 6pm, NDK hall 7); a student fashion show (May 11, 5pm, NDK hall 7) and opportunities to ride bikes, rollerblade and do art projects in the outside area in front of NDK.

Partners and organisers include Roditeli Association, BAIT’s education group, LUKoil-Ikken Sport Club, Sofia’s Centre for Working with Children, Bulgarian Book Association, Nestiya National Art Centre, the Union of Workers in the System of National Education in Bulgaria, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the State Agency for Youth and Sport, and President Georgi Purvanov.