Bulgarian Teachers:Happiness in Hardship

Bulgarian Teachers

Happiness in Hardship

The teacher.

By spending even a few minutes in the school hallways, you will almost certainly hear at least a few complaints about the struggles of being a student. However, how many people actually know how difficult it is to be a teacher?

Unfortunately, if one tries to put themselves into the teachers' shoes, they will discover several issues.

BUREAUCRACY

Teachers in Bulgaria face an extensive amount of bureaucracy in their day-to-day work. This takes up a lot of precious time that could be used for lesson preparation and checking exams.

A teacher going through exercises for the class.. (Photo/Trayana Karamihaleva)

One of the solutions that the Bulgarian Ministry of Education came up with is introducing electronic schoolbooks. They allow teachers to enter data about students’ performance and attendance, points that reward positive behavior (e.g. active participation, regular homework) and punish negative behavior (e.g. talking in class, using the phone). There is also a module for parents where they can get real-time notifications about their children’s grades, absences, etc.

"It's much more convenient and new functions are constantly being added," shared Tsvetanka Terziyska, a Mathematics teacher at the "Akad. Sergey Korolyov" High School in Blagoevgrad. "It's also good that students and parents can access it, too, but without the option to manipulate it. With the paper ones, it is much easier to secretly "fix" grades, excuse absences, etc. without the teacher's knowledge."

A teacher looking for documents in one of the drawers in the teachers'room. (Photo/Trayana Karamihaleva)

The punishments section in the electronic schoolbook. Electronic schoolbooks were recently introduced in Bulgaria and new functions are still being added. (Photo/Trayana Karamihaleva)

Paper schoolbooks that are still being used at the Akad. Sergey Korolyov High School of Mathematics. (Photo/Trayana Karamihaleva)

Since this is fairly new, there are still many schools, such as the Mathematics school in Blagoevgrad, which use both the paper and electronic version of the schoolbooks. This can become redundant and even more time-consuming for teachers. However, the teachers shared that they will soon move to completely electronic.

AGING TEACHERS

Another issue is that the majority of teachers in Bulgaria are approaching retirement and not a lot of young people want to become teachers. The main reasons for this are the unattractive work conditions, insufficient opportunities for professional development and bad discipline in class that can be difficult to handle. There is particular need for teachers in primary schools, the fields of IT and communications, foreign languages, physics, mathematics and some fields in professional education and training.

One of the older teachers checking exams. (Photo/Trayana Karamihaleva)

17.7%

of teachers think their profession is appreciated by society

50%

of Bulgarian teachers are over 50 years old

10%

of them are over 60 years old

Even from the Bulgarian students studying to become teachers,

60 in 100

graduates actually pursue the profession.

So, if being a teacher is such a difficult profession, why would anyone want to become a teacher? Why put yourself under this amount of stress and do so much hard work for an insufficient salary?

To find the answer, I went to the "Sergey Korolyov" High School of Mathematics in Blagoevgrad. I decided to focus on three teachers with different experience to see what challenges they face every day, what inspired them to choose this job and what motivates them to stay despite the difficulties.

What is the present and future of Bulgarian education?

What is the teacher's role in society?

Daniela Zhekova

"Just knowing that my students have become good people and they know that education has given them the foundation of what they have become, makes me happy."

Tsvetanka Terziyska

"What brings me the most joy is seeing understanding from my students; seeing the happiness in their eyes."

Spas Gegov

"The teacher is the lantern that lights up the right path for the student, away from the fog."

Sources for statistics:

News.bg. (2019, September 26). EC Notes Problems in Bulgarian Education.. Retrieved from https://news.bg/education/ek-otchita-problemi-v-balgarskoto-obrazovanie.html.

Prohazkova, Y. (2018, March 21). Where to Study Pedagogics. Retrieved from https://www.24chasa.bg/novini/article/6772054.