The Bulgarian education system is such that sooner or later almost every student goes to private lessons. Some start as early as first grade because of their parents’ ambitions, others after fourth grade to catch up. If by then a student has not yet attended additional lessons, then in the seventh grade, when there are exams in Bulgarian and mathematics, he will hardly get away with it. It can be argued for a long time why this is so – whether the Bulgarian school does not prepare well for the mini-matriculation exams, or because the HEV is more difficult than the tasks in class. However, it is a fact that every second seventh-grader goes to lessons to get a good grade in the exams, which depends on which high school he will enter. And yet, is it possible to do without private lessons, thousands of parents ask on the threshold of this year’s exam session for seventh graders.
Private lessons are reinsurance
A similar question can be seen behind the question of PP-DB deputy Stella Nikolova to the Ministry of Education. Nikolova asked the minister in writing whether the Ministry of Education and Culture had conducted a study of what percentage of students who received higher results at the Higher Secondary Education after 7th grade attended private lessons and what percentage relied only on school education. Her question is probably prompted by the mass attendance of private lessons by seventh graders in the capital, where the results are the highest in the whole country. And the goal is clear – to find out, as far as possible, whether it is possible to get a high score on the mini-maturas without the student having attended private lessons.
The answer of the Ministry of Education and Culture is categorical – “private lessons are reinsurance on the part of the parents, and if they study seriously, the students do not need additional preparation for the higher education institutions”. From there, they indicate that through each of the exams from the Higher Education Institutions, the degree of achievement of the competences in the subject for the relevant stage, defined in the state educational standard for general education, is established. “For the guidance of all interested parties, the Ministry of Education and Culture annually publishes models for each of the exams from the Higher Education Institutions at the beginning of the academic year. In each model, the classes from which the learning content is included in the tasks are explicitly indicated, and it is specified that this learning content is included in In this sense, the exam tests only include tasks and cases related to the knowledge and skills acquired in the compulsory study hours, and any student who works seriously and consistently in the classes of the stage has no need for additional preparation. “, the department says.
“As for attending ‘private lessons’, this is a matter of choice on the part of the parents. The Ministry of Education and Culture does not collect and has no reason to collect such information. A survey about attending activities outside of formal education carries the risk of inaccurate and biased information and does not would contribute to inferences about the quality of education at individual institutions Often enrolling students in “private lessons” is a reinsurance on the part of parents rather than a necessity, and it is difficult to judge whether a student’s success is a result of the training him at school, or from his work with a private teacher,” says Minister Penov in his answer. According to him, the state has created the conditions to provide consultations and additional training in the form of general support to students who have gaps in learning the learning content and in acquiring the competencies in a given educational subject.
So why does everyone take private lessons?
Beyond the formal answer, however, too many questions arise. “Reinsurance” would be an explanation for some parents, but not that many. A survey among parents commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Culture in 2022 (when opinions were collected about the problems in the curricula) showed an alarming picture in our country – that 50% of parents of students from grades 5 to 7 pay for private lessons so that their children can to cope with the exams at the end of the 7th grade – 27.6% in more than one subject, and 22.4% – in one subject. Between grades 1-4, 27% of parents send their children to private lessons – 12.5% for more than one subject, and 14.4% – for one subject. Between grades 8-10, 34 percent of parents pay for lessons. And in general, for all age groups, 37% of parents answer affirmatively to the question of whether their child takes private lessons in subjects studied at school (20% in one subject, 17% in more than one subject).
The research also showed that only 1.3% of students go to additional consultations on a given subject (the so-called “general support” referred to by the Ministry of Education and Culture) in order to overcome difficulties in it. Given the workload of teachers, mainly children with more serious difficulties and gaps go to consultations, while those who are in the middle – for example, between “good 4” and “very good 5”, are usually not provided with such, testified students.
“I can’t afford not to enroll my son in private lessons in the 7th grade. He even started going in the 6th grade – on the one hand, to guarantee him a place in the school in the 7th grade, when there is a huge influx for her, on the other hand – to make up for the gaps he has in school,” says a mother. She says that his son’s math teacher is of the old school – explains very well, is disciplined and really tests, without setting unrealistically high marks, i.e. she can somewhat trust the “sixes” her child gets in math. In Bulgarian, however, the classes run with great chaos – the children are often on their phones in class, not paying attention, and most of them have excellent grades, which for her is a sign that something is not as it seems. “When my son appeared for tests to determine the entrance level in the private school, his result in Bulgarian was 13 points out of 20, and in mathematics – 12 points out of 20. What a surprise! It turned out that our grades at school they’re not real at all,” she says. Since attending lessons for a year now, her son has progressed and is reaching almost the maximum score in the mock tests he takes at the private center.
“The lady at the school explains much better, it’s noisy in class, but here it’s quieter, with fewer children. We can ask questions,” says a sixth-grader who attends private lessons in Bulgarian. He is convinced that without lessons he would hardly have coped at the higher education institution next year – as “proof” he gives an example of a task that was explained to him at school that it must be completed in one way, and by the private teacher he knows in detail, the exam format and its requirements are completely different. In fact, among the many shortcomings of school education is the fact that in class students almost do not prepare purposefully for the exams at the end of the 7th grade – they do not regularly take mock exams, as happens in schools, they are not tested for how long and how many tasks will decide, i.e. they are not well acquainted with the specifics of the format, which is key to good performance.
The comments that the tasks of the national external assessment at the end of the 7th grade, although they only include what was learned in the compulsory general education lessons, are an idea more complex than what is learned in class cannot be passed lightly. And this is because, in addition to evaluating whether the students achieve what is set in the curricula, the exams also aim to screen the best students who enter ten or fifteen “elite” schools.
It’s all marketing
Some teachers argue that going to private lessons is more harmful and distracts students from their regular classes, in which they get used to not putting in the necessary effort. “Children who attend math lessons, as a rule, do not pay attention during the lessons and cannot solve problems independently. In lessons, problems are solved in groups, even if you see how a problem is solved and understand it, don’t you you decide for yourself, if it doesn’t go through your hands, it doesn’t work”, the director of the 51st school in the capital, Asen Alexandrov, commented to “Sega” some time ago . It was on the occasion of a principal’s assessment, which he had surprisingly given his students, and on which they scored one unit lower than their term grades.
“There are private lessons all over the world, but in our country there has been parental hysteria for at least 25 years. The hysteria is a product of the communist division of schools into “elite” and others. The word “elite” has long been devalued. Both parents and children are deceiving themselves. , that they will learn more in the private lesson… If the school does not train for the exams, it is a problem of the principal and the RUO, in addition to the professional conscience of the teacher. There are private schools that dictate the “fashion” in the exams, this is a marketing one scheme,” says Margarita Ilcheva from the Vocational School of Design in Sofia. According to her, it has been known for a long time about the schools in question not only that they are advertised as better, but also that they solve almost the same tasks that are given in the mathematics exam. According to her, there is a huge need for a total change in the eternal pair of BEL-Mathematics exams, which have been around for at least 55-60 years.
Principals have also been insisting on testing students’ knowledge in other subjects – for example, physics, chemistry, biology, geography. “You can’t go to lessons in 5-6 subjects. Then private lessons will disappear by themselves”, they think. So far, however, no one from the Ministry of Education and Culture has dared to introduce integrated exams – in natural sciences and humanities, as there were requests. There is no will for the decentralization of exams, which is also insisted on by quite a few teachers, i.e. that each school should only determine the examinations by which one enters it – the schools of art should admit by drawing, those of mathematics by mathematics.
The golden mean
“Private tutoring is a crazy phenomenon that we have been allowing parents to do for years, and we need to think about the purpose and the cost to our children. There is an element of collective panic in it that is created by all of us – parents, teachers and students. Yes, there are students , who do not go to private lessons and do excellently at higher education institutions. But also, the in-depth knowledge became practice precisely through private schools, which should not be the case,” comments Yana Alexieva from the “Parents” Association. According to her, schools have somehow become normalized in all these years and there is no space left to think about why we send our children to lessons. “I wouldn’t blame the school – it does everything in its power, it’s just that there’s not always time left to teach the whole program. But it’s up to all of us to categorically say ‘No’ to private lessons,” she believes. According to her, it is necessary to change the format of the exams, which does not imply going to private lessons. Key to it is communication between teachers and parents, who should strive to talk to each other more, incl. and to reduce the stress of exams, which continue to be perceived by many as “the worst nightmare” for seventh graders.
