There is this certain type of people who see their professional duty as a mission and we won’t exaggerate if we call them apostles. Teacher of chemistry and biology Alish Vakliov in the village of Bel Kamen, Yakoruda Municipality, now principal of the school, is one of them. His kids study empathy and love, they travel around the globe from the classroom and education is the main thing now for the people in the area. However, when he headed the institution in 2009, Mr. Vakliov at once realized that he would have to become an entrepreneur due to the “money follow the pupil” system. Internet came to help and soon the smart man applied for an English teacher position with the Peace Corps. Then he presented a project for a modern computer hall to the America for Bulgaria Foundation. Thus volunteer Susie Row came to the village for a couple of years, in order to teach everybody English. The money made went for the repair works at the school and it was updated with a multifunctional computer office with 13 working places, an interactive blackboard, multimedia, a white screen for the other classrooms, an audio system, a LED TV and a video camera.

“Our Internet connection is fast and thanks to it kids get to know the world more easily,” Alish Vakliov says. “Being a poor and small school we don’t have enough maps and what’s left is torn and broken. However, the network provides any map we would like to see. There are also education platforms there, we use video lessons, we do online tests with the interactive blackboard and we witness things that we cannot do due to the lack of materials – for instance, chemistry tests. It’s like being in a cinema hall.”

At the moment the Neophyte Rilski School hosts 40 pupils in the 1 – 7 grade and they study in mixed classes. It’s not easy for a teacher to pay attention to different ages simultaneously, but the effort is worth it, as the kids get outstanding feedback upon their arrival to high schools in neighboring towns. This is also thanks to the US volunteer who was warmly welcomed by the entire village and became a source of knowledge to everybody.

“She taught us that it was not enough only to teach the lesson, check the homework and time to pass by one way or another,” the principal says. “We learnt that it was necessary to hold extra-curriculum activities in the afternoon – in different clubs of interests. We had to create reasons for the parents to come, in the best meaning, to get constantly interested in what is going on with their children, to be part of the school as well. That is my idea too.”

That was why the principal opened the doors of the school for everybody and everybody sat down in front of the computers.

“I dream of a school being the center of the community and it looks like that has already happened,” Mr. Vakliov says and adds: “There is no other educational institution in the village – no library, no community center, an Internet café, a club of the retired, a theatre or cinema… I dream about joint work here, as we are actually creating the future of Bulgaria. The role of the parents is essential – the school would reach nowhere without them.”

The principal is convinced that if there was no school, half of the children wouldn’t be educated and would remain illiterate like the eldest people in Bel Kamen. That is why his ambition now is that the school should enter the state list of protected ones that cannot be closed and he will apply for it year after year until the final success.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev