A survey of the European School Network financed by the European Commission shows that Bulgaria places at the bottom of the European ranking with regard to the number of computers in Bulgarian classrooms. Eleven pupils in Bulgaria use an average of one computer, while in the other EU member states eleven pupils have access to an average of four computers. The lack of a high-quality digital material and bad equipment are among the biggest problems of the digital education in this country. Moreover, teachers do not have good access to constant qualification courses, in order to use the modern technologies in an adequate manner. There is also a substantial deficit of qualified IT experts, despite the growing need of such personnel. According to data of the world IT sector, the lack of IT personnel amounts to nearly 4.5 million people. Europe needs nearly 1 million IT experts. Bulgaria alone needs tens of thousands of IT experts. At the end of 2013 Bulgaria’s Ministry of Education and Science developed a strategy of effective application of information and communication technologies in education for the period 2014-2020. There are a total of fifty measures in this strategy which aim at solving existing problems in education. It will cost nearly EUR 280 million which is to be paid by the state budget and under EU funds. Virtual classrooms and laboratories, a national system for online exams and external assessment, electronic appliances with interactive contents on all general subjects, are all part of the strategy which has to be implemented by 2020.

“A whole digital generation is growing now. Children expect us to provide them with multimedia resource and we must do it”, says Information and Communication Expert Orlin Kuzov from the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. If we fail to do it, these children will lose connection with the educational process. I am not saying that paper textbooks should disappear tomorrow, but this is a process which is to happen in the future. We are planning to shift entirely into electronic education by 2020. The good news is that many publishing houses are working in this direction and publish paper and multimedia school appliances. We intend to encourage them to continue to do so.”

How local education looks like from the business point of view and how it solves existing problems? According to representatives if the IT sector, the young people are not informed enough about the career opportunities in this promising sector where unemployment is literally 0% and the average salary for 2013 was EUR 1,250. These people contend that Bulgaria lacks lecturers in communication and information technologies and the necessary equipment is old. “The educational institution must teach students and pupils how to think. Bearing in mind information is only one click away, they should train the coming generation to think rationally, be creative and innovative, instead of loading them with information”, contends Elena Marinova from the Managing Committee of the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies and adds:

“The level of penetration of the IT technologies in school curricula is very low. Yes, there are some classes in information technologies, but they are quite late in time. These classes are held in the upper grades. However, they should start as early as in the kindergarten. Perhaps, the biggest problem is that all other subjects do not use the IT technologies the way they should, as this has already happened in other countries. It is not necessary to discover something new. We can simply use some existing examples. The branch associations are struggling to make children study programming when they are still in the kindergarten. There are many games for this purpose. Thus, we can attract their attention and start directing them to the IT sector in the long run. If the number of the IT expert rises significantly, the state would benefit a lot in the years to come.”

E-education prevents discrimination and makes education accessible to everyone, the IT experts further contend. Due to the sharp deficit of personnel in Bulgaria, the IT companies operating in Bulgaria have launched 30-40 educational initiatives over the recent years such as the establishment of IT academies, etc. How better use of information and telecommunication technologies in education would boost economic growth in this country? More from Elena Marinova:

“These are companies which work predominantly on the international markets and form a high added value, i.e. we import a lot of money to the state treasury. It results in higher budget and more money allotted for public expenditures such as infrastructure, healthcare, pensions and education. This is how the financial wheel spins again”, concludes Elena Marinova.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov