Unfortunately, low salaries have become a synonym for teachers’ pay in Bulgaria.

A check done by The Sofia Echo showed that a primary school teachers' average salary is about 340 leva. This applies only to those who hold a university diploma for teaching. If a lawyer, for example, wanted to start working as a teacher but lacked the qualification course, he would get 80 per cent of that amount. The high number of teachers, however, has made it impossible for the state to allocate more money for salary increases than the budget allows.

To change this, the education system has been undergoing a series of reforms, with every government introducing its own ideas.

The latest change met serious resistance by the teachers, although the system of “money following the pupil” was copied from some European Union countries, where it has proven a success. This system was the Government’s answer to the problems of Bulgaria’s teachers among which is low salaries.

The reforms started on January 1 2008, when this year’s budget came into force. According to an act adopted by Parliament every year, schools will now adhere to a devolved system that should enable school directors to become managers rather than simply executing Education Ministry directives. The ministry has effectively introduced a “money follows the pupil”-type system, meaning that an annual allowance is awarded to each pupil by the ministry. Each school director will receive a budget dependent on the number of pupils in his or her school. As of January 1 2008, the allowance is pegged at 1100 leva per pupil.

The money, however, will not reach schools directly from the budget. Instead, it works as follows: the Finance Ministry transfers the money to municipalities that will, in turn, allocate resources to schools in their catchment area. Municipalities are given the right to top up sums when needed - but at their own expense. Once the money is received by the school then it can be used for salary increases and other expenses. That way, headmasters are asked to act as managers and use the budget as they think is best for the school.

This was how the Government said salary increases would be possible. The problem is that headmasters are faced with reaching a certain goal. A ministry ordinance stipulates that the lowest salary a teacher can earn as of July 1 is 450 leva.

So, in a way, headmasters have been given a goal and left to pick their own ways of attaining it.

The system was introduced in January but is far from being successfully implemented. According to Roman Bratoev, headmaster of St Kiril and Metodi school in the village of Marchaevo, just outside Sofia, the reform had not started yet and he was still waiting for his budget to arrive in the bank account.

Said Bratoev: “I believe it is because of bureaucratic reasons. The fact is that I have nothing in the school’s bank account as of May 9 and we are spending municipal money, which, later, the municipality will get back from us whenever we receive our budget.” According to him, however, the money that he would get would only cover the current salaries and nothing would be left for increases.

One of the ways to change this is for Bratoev to cut down the number of staff. This, however, will affect the school performance, which, he says, would lead to its closure. “I have the feeling that this might be the actual goal of the reform. To make us close down and merge schools,” he said.

Fees and costs

Article 53 of the Bulgarian constitution says: “Everyone shall have the right to education. School attendance up to the age of 16 is compulsory. Primary and secondary education in state and municipal schools is free.”

This means that the only costs for which parents are asked to pay for their children’s schooling in Bulgaria are textbooks, notebooks, stationery and school field trips, for the simple reason that none of these is covered by the state. In 2005, primary schools introduced a catering service covered by the state under the so-called kifla (a sweet bun) and warm milk programme of Labour and Social Policy Minister Emilia Maslarova. The programme was supposed to provide food to those in need, but failed due to problems with the “internal communication” among the Health Ministry, Maslarova’s ministry and the Education Ministry. After several media reports about the poor quality of the food supplied to the schools, the programme was quietly dropped.