EUR 1.54 bln. to enter education and science sphere in 2012
Some EUR 1.54 bln. will enter the sphere of Bulgarian education and science this year. The educational institution was one of the two ministries with increased budgets, despite the crisis. The preschool and school education spheres and the scientific sector receive the greatest share of funding. Some EUR 100 mln. will go for all scientific activities. The money is allocated to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the universities.
Amendments in the Law for University Education were adopted in July 2011 and Bulgarian universities started to welcome foreign students on a large scale. “Thus the intellectual product of this country will now be exported abroad,” Educational Minister Sergey Ignatov commented on the amendments.
“Our concrete steps were as follows,” the minister says on the details and adds: “We liberalized the regime for recognition of the relevant educational degree. Now the universities themselves do that and not the ministry, as it used to be. It is not necessary the documents to be translated, if they are not written in some of the popular languages – English, French, German, Italian etc. It is important in terms of time and money saved. We gave the universities the right to franchise. We can praise now that two Bulgarian universities have their branches abroad. The medicine university in Varna has established its own structure for training of nurses in Kuwait. Another Bulgarian university created a branch in Cyprus. The starting of the project for students’ trainings and practices was essential for the connection between business and education. That is why changes of the educational programs in professional high schools and all Bulgarian universities started as of January 2012.”
The project is worth EUR 46 mln. and will be executed in the course of this year and the next one. All pupils and students will have at least 240 hours of real practice. Their labor will be paid too. Young tutors or business experts will lead this practice and afterwards they will be able to offer jobs to the students.
Projects in the sphere of education and science to the tune of more than EUR 267 mln. with EU funding started as of January. Those are aimed at the training and additional training of teachers. 47,000 tutors will go through this system in 2012.
Arguments between education and business get more serious with the development of technologies. Companies blame the educational system for the lack of proper practical skills of future experts – their knowledge is theoretical and archaic.
“People see the university as a 19th century ivory tower and all its inhabitants are important, their life is dedicated to essential things and they don’t care about the outside world,” Minister Sergey Ignatov says, defending the position of the educational system. “However, a contemporary university exists in a network and many efforts are put for overcoming of this outdated way of thinking. This is not only a Bulgarian, but a global problem. Everything possible is done, in order for universities and professional schools to work in joint networks with business. We already have good practices, regarding this. Many companies monitor school or university programs and say: “You have good courses and lections, but we need other experts.” Then we offer immediately the following: “OK, you give us your tutors, you create a lab for our students and then you take them in your companies.”
Bulgarian universities implement English language training in an active manner. We are talking mainly about medical and technical universities. The number of programs and specialties with a teaching process in English is increasing. “In these times of crisis, 2012 is a good year for Bulgarian education and science,” Minister Sergey Ignatov resumes.
Text and photo: bnr.bg
(14.02.2012)