Over the past 17 years, more than 1000 schools have been closed in Bulgaria. Primary schools in small towns often struggle to survive. In areas with predominant minority population, pupils’ poor Bulgarian language proficiency creates additional obstacles to teachers and the problem of children dropping out of the education system continues to be on institutions' agenda.

At this backdrop, a village school has been described as one that has “jumped into the future." The Primary School "Dr. Peter Beron" in the village of Plustina is central to the Omurtag municipality. It has about 160 students from 13 settlements. 10-15% of the children are Romani and the rest are of Turkish origin.

The latest training technologies have been applied here for 12 years now. Classrooms have been equipped with electronic boards and laptops for each teacher. The school has two computer rooms, an indoor gym with fitness equipment and an outdoor playground.

Modern school equipment undoubtedly requires a lot of resources. How has all this been achieved?

"The school owns about 50 acres of farmland. The money from rent goes into the school," Deputy Director Nursen Isufova explains. “We have been actively working on European and national programs. When the first national programs started to be implemented back in 2007/2008, we won 3 projects. We have built a wonderful sports playground, which our pupils use with great desire. In the indoor sports hall we have fitness equipment and children can also use it in their free time. We have also introduced school uniforms because we see how the difference in clothing created embarrassment for some of the students.”

Nursen Isufova says that thanks to successful implementation of 2 European, projects totaling about 240 thousand euros, the school management continued to improve the conditions in the school and on the other hand provided the opportunity for pupils to travel all over Bulgaria, participating in forums and festivals and creating partnerships with other schools. The students also often go to sports camps and excursions.

Do your pupils ever want to go on school recess at all?

The announcement of a two-week Christmas holiday actually was not to the liking of some pupils, Ms. Isufova says.

The efforts of an ambitious team of pedagogues combined with interactive teaching methods have yielded amazing results. For example, during the 2014 National External Assessment in Mathematics, the school in Plustina achieved an average score of 5.13 and became the only one in the country with a score above 5.

The unemployment rate in the region is high, so some families work abroad and children are raised by their grandparents.

"We often need to be in the role of substitute parents," the deputy principal says. "Students share a lot with their teachers. They seek help and assistance in every way. We have been trying to provide them with what they are missing at home."

With the help of benefactors, financially distressed families were provided with computers so that children can do their homework and the school also has a dressing room, full of clothes, shoes and supplies for anyone in need.

It seems the school management has accomplished everything. "Not everything," Nursen Isufova says and adds:

"We need to continue developing in the digital sphere. Our idea is that students would come to school with just one flash drive with them. They would not need backpacks. This would be the newest thing to happen in our school.”

English: Alexander Markov