Almost 80 representatives of Bulgarian schools around the world met in Sofia for the 10th jubilee annual meeting of the Association of Bulgarian Schools Abroad (ABSA), an organization that harnesses the efforts of Bulgarian educational establishments abroad aimed at preserving the national identity of the younger generation of Bulgarians growing up on all continents.

“The ABSA revived the hopes of Bulgarian teachers abroad, inspiring them with confidence because the state administration has started a dialogue with them, acknowledging their work and demonstrating that their efforts are appreciated. Without any exaggeration I can say that the role our association plays is historic,” says Dr. Irina Boteva-Vladikova, Director of the St. St. Cyril and Methodius Bulgarian-Austrian school in Vienna and chair of the ABSA.

Set up in 2007, after a period in which Bulgarian teachers abroad were decidedly not happy because they were not meeting with the support of the Bulgarian state for their educational efforts, the Association is now successfully lobbying different institutions for a more active state policy regarding Bulgarian schools around the world and finding adequate solutions to their problems. And as such, teachers bring up the need to draft a specialized curriculum and school aids for the children who are growing up in a foreign-language environment. It is vital to create conditions to hold matriculation exams in Bulgarian language and literature at Bulgarian schools abroad.

In March 2017, the ABSA submitted to the European Parliament a petition for recognizing the official EU languages at a “matriculation” level. The initiative received the support of Vice-President Iliana Iotova, the State Agency for Bulgarians Abroad, Bulgarian MEPs and a host of prominent public figures. The petition calls for promoting cooperation among the member countries in the sphere of foreign-language studies and urges the EU to help the countries’ efforts towards providing a legal and administrative opportunity for holding matriculation or some other kind of language exam in any one of the official languages of the EU, including Bulgarian, in places where there exists a significant and proven interest among school-goers.

“The petition was submitted to the Committee on Complaints which looked into it and we have recommendations,” Dr. Irina Vladikova says. “The recommendations make it clear that the committee does not have legislative initiative, but that there are different commissions on education and culture that we shall turn to for help, with the assistance of the MEPs and that the question of smaller languages should be raised.”

In the words of Dr. Vladikova, at this point, it is important to conclude bilateral agreements with individual EU countries and to use the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU as an opportunity to draw attention to this problem.

“I am sure other nations will join our demand because to put it bluntly – this is a violation of our children’s rights. They are at a disadvantage compared to children coming to Germany from Spain, for example – their native language is studied and they can sit for a matriculation exam in Spanish, whereas our children, when they come here, they have to sit down and study another language, and that puts them in a position of disadvantage.”

English version: Milena Daynova