We often talk of the delayed reform in Bulgaria’s educational system, on the problems inside it that should be solved quickly, in order for the sector to catch up with the rest of Europe. The decisions on the reform’s direction are taken by the government, but Bulgarian teachers are the ones who take the real steps towards a change. Those people don’t make much money, but have a lot of responsibilities, as the society requires their behavior to serve as an example. Their classes should be interesting, while the time after turns them into psychologists, counselors, administrators and mediators…

Even after the end of their working hours teachers often remain involved in school issues. Parents call on the phone to clarify different cases, as the greatest number of questions are due to the subjective nature of a teacher’s assessment. There is always discontent and parents often tend to blame it on the teacher. “In the beginning of the 21^st century the Bulgarian school implements a great number of new inventions in favor of its students, but westill lack the proper explanation of the growing aggression, aimed at teachers,” the syndicate of tutors state. The latter have many times raised the issue on the creation of a precise law, protecting them. Statistics says that nearly 50 percent of the teachers have suffered some injuries while doing their job. The alarming fact is that there are parents, forcing the teacher to assess higher the skills of their kids.

“Our labor is really often underestimated,” teachers point out. They say the widespread claim on their longer summer vacation is wrong. They acquire new skills then or solve administrative problems and a vacation is never long enough for a person to get rid of the stress, accumulated over the school year.

“It must be easy to be a teacher of pupils. Kids are so quiet and nice when they are small,” say people that know nothing about the job. Boyana Yovcheva, a long-year schoolteacher at the First School in Sofia proves that the statement is quite wrong:

“There is lots of dynamics inside a school, everything changes. New communication tools help the kids, but only to certain extend. Technologies cannot replace human communication and the presence of teachers. Technologies have changed communication inside the family as well. Small children sit in front of the computer and forget about their parents or coevals. The problem is how long we are going to let them stay online. We often talk of a law, protecting the teacher from aggression at school. I think it is a delayed one, as teachers suffer due to parents’ reactions. We live in a society that concentrates mainly on the everyday survival of the family. Troubles and concerns pump up aggression among parents and it is often transferred to their kids who tend to copy the behavior of those grumpy grownups around. The impression is that modern parents are not prepared for their role to raise a child. Kids are left in the hands of kindergartens from an early age, followed by school, but institutions cannot replace attention and care at home. I also witness other mistakes. Parents in most cases try to defend their children by unfairly criticizing and attacking the others, whenever a communication conflict occurs. There is a lack of tolerance in relations which is automatically transferred to the classroom, thus creating obstacles for the job of the teacher.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev