There are no official data on how many people in Bulgaria visit trainings and out-of-school arts and cultural education programs.
During the Fifth Seminar on Extracurricular and Out-of-school Activities for Sustainable and Quality Education, Upbringing and Development of Children and Students in 2018, held under the patronage of the Ministry of Education and Science, data on out-of-school activities was presented. According to this data, there are 126 public out-of-school units in Bulgaria. They cover 65 000 children and students in out-of-school forms of education. The financing of these activities is determined annually by a decision of the Council of Ministers.
The national programme Ensuring Contemporary Educational Environment has as one of its goals to stimulate practical training in a real work environment and in accordance with modern new technologies. BGN 100,000 (EUR 51 116) of its total budget (BGN 9,230,000 / EUR 4 718 020) is dedicated to activities under the Museums as an Educational Environment Module. The idea is to enable students to spend part of their educational training in a museum, acquiring new knowledge in a different and attractive way. Beneficiaries of the programme are state and municipal schools, as well as the National Museum of Education – Gabrovo. The maximum amount for financial support of a school project is BGN 2,500 (EUR 1 277). The funds can be used as entrance tickets, class fees, virtual tours and video lessons, for materials offered by the museums for activities during the lessons (not included in the entrance tickets), as well as transport to the museum.
Private lessons
In 2020, the average gross salary of teachers will increase by 20%, with similar increases made in the previous two years. Due to the low payment in the sector, many teachers were forced to work privately before these changes. It is common practice for students to have private lessons to prepare themselves for the next stage of their education, such as when they apply to study in high school or university. The percentage of public school teachers giving private lessons is high, but there are no official data.
There are no official statistics for out-of-school lessons because it is not regulated. The interpretation of the concept of “private lessons” is unclear as there is no definition of it in the VAT Act.
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