The Bulgarian Classroom

One of my former students asked how Bulgarian schools are different from American schools. That’s a great question.

One huge difference between American and Bulgarian schools is that the teachers here travel to the students’ homerooms and do not have a room of their own. Teachers only have a drawer in the teachers’ lounge. They don’t seem to have a place to hang their coats, but they don’t need a place because if it’s cold enough to need a coat outside, it’s cold enough to need the coat inside, and they wear them inside and out.

The school year is divided into two semesters like in the states, but the school year begins September 15, and the first semester ends the first week of February. Second semester ends on a different day for different grades:

                Grade 12 ends May 11

    Grade 1 ends May 23

                Grades 2-4 end May 31

                Grades 5-7 end June 15

                Grades 8-11 end June 30           

There are several breaks throughout the year. The first is at the end of October, the next is Christmas break, a four-day break at the end of first semester (that must include the weekend), spring break, two days for Easter, a day for St. George’s Day (which was this past Friday), and I’ve heard there are some more breaks before the end of the year, but I don’t know yet when they are.

Students are divided into classes called paralelki.  For example, if there were enough students in one grade for two sections, the students are divided into two paralelki and stay in that paralelki through the 8^th grade. Also, the homeroom teacher a class has will follow that class through 4^th grade.

Classes are 40-45 minutes long, and students can expect to have homework every day. I’ve read that fourth grade has 10 class subjects, and 10^th grade has 13 class subjects.

 I think it’s interesting that the second and third grades here study the Russian language. Some parents didn’t like that their kids were being made to learn Russian because they thought they should be learning English, so they went to the director and tried to change it for 2^nd graders. Now they are given a choice. This year’s third grade will continue to learn Russian as fourth and fifth graders. Their language studies start in second grade, and if a student does well in a foreign language in the lower grades, he or she can continue to a language secondary school after 8^th grade.

The principal is called a “director” and is not involved in disciplining students!

There are several breaks between classes: 20 minutes after first period so kids can run to a magazine (mini market) and buy something to eat, then another long break later, and always 10 minutes between classes. These times are never organized and one can often see the hall duty teacher holding her head and saying, “Ayee-yi-yi!”

There are also many similarities – some of them you can pick out of my writing. Kids are kids, all are talented in some or another, many are motivated to learn, others would rather be doing something else, but they are all very special, and I’m very glad for this chance to see for myself what Bulgarian children are like. Thanks for asking, Cassey!