The latest report on the international survey of 15-eyar-old students PISA 2015 published yesterday by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) is massively present in the press today. Sega sounds the alarm that “Bulgarian students rank second worldwide as per bullying in schools”. Trud reports that 30% of students self-define as outsiders and 61% have fear of low grades. Dnevnik though explains that in the OECD report fear of low grades is common worldwide. Sources from the Ministry of Education have said that Bulgarian girls show greater concerns over their grades in school.

Sega remarks that stress levels among Bulgarian students are comparable to what their peers across the world experience, but points out that they have showed greater ambitions and a higher level of satisfaction with life. It also writes that in terms of satisfaction, Bulgarian students rank 13^th among 70 countries and administrative regions.

The PISA survey suggests an alarming trend in Bulgaria. All indexes for bullying in schools are higher than the OECD average, and as per physical bullying Bulgaria ranks second among 54 countries. 9.1% of Bulgarian students have said that they have been beaten or physically hurt by their classmates several times a month and in this respect Hong Kong is the only country faring worse with 9.5% of the polled complaining of bullying.

Despite the unfavorable circumstances they face, Bulgarian ninth-grade students stand out with their high ambitions - 67.2% of them say they want to be among the best students in their class, against an OECD average of 59.2%, Sega points out.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English Daniela Konstantinova