Distance learning in Bulgaria will continue at least until April 13, predicts Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev, and he assured that there will be no zero school year. He claimed that the official order of the Minister of Health is expected today.
Minister Valchev noted that it was a challenge to start distance learning so as to compensate for some of the backlog during the flu vacation. He added that he was pleasantly surprised that „effective distance learning“ had been started in many schools and a large number of students had already followed it.
According to him, there are always options for improvement, especially after grade IV.
The online courses were to start in 3 days, pointed out the Minister of Education and added:
„It was actually a good prerequisite that we were decentralizing the choice of platforms. If we had gone with a centralized solution, we probably would not have succeeded to handle so well. We have offered a platform as a backup, but not a mandatory option, along with school accounts. Some use school register modules, which is not exactly an educational platform, but they are currently upgrading. There are also teachers who use social networking apps, but this should be a backup.“
Not all children have been involved in e-learning, but they are assigned tasks via telephone, social networks, parents, or by carrying home teaching materials.
Minister Valchev stated that the matriculation examinations would quickly adapt to new exam dates and specified that if the measures were by April 13 or April 20, the exam days would be changed too.
„From now on, the options are already linked to the postponement of the exams. This is not impossible. It will be the most difficult for the XII grade, as there is a co-ordination with the higher education institutions, but I am sure that they will delay the admission as well.“
Translation: Gloria Yordanova
