Maths School Mayhem

Checking the results

I think I’ve said before that I have heard that there are many bloggers, who have had their blog posts ready for months ahead, but the problem with this is that it destroys spontaneity

Although a blog is produced post after post things happen in life like toothache and land clearing.

So although I said that I was going to go into the transport system I’m just going to digress for a minute or two.

And the reason is because I’ve been told by one or two people that in addition to giving, if you like, information about Bulgaria, I should also try to give more information about the actual details of life here.

Now, I’m not so sure that everything I do and say is of interest to everybody but there one or two things that are of interest to a lot of people in principle and one of those is education.

So you might ask yourself why do I have a picture of people all scrumming around?

Well the reason is simple and I’ll explain it.

The reason I’m interested in education particularly, apart from the fact that I have worked in this sector in the past, is that I have an 11-year-old son and like every other parent, I suppose, I want to make sure that he gets the best start in life.

Now the way it works here in Bulgaria is a bit like in much of continental Europe, which is that the main school system starts at seven years old.

In my son’s case, before that, he went to a kindergarten which turned out to be a very good indeed.

Before I enrolled him in the kindergarten I was given dire warnings about how awful it would be, how various members of the staff would steal the apples and all sorts of things like that.

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The kindergarten was excellent and gave him a good preparation for when he moved his main school at seven and he’s done very well at this school which has a good reputation.

But having reached the fourth grade, he found out that this is the time when you can make a switch and this is the way it works:

The schools available for everybody in Bulgaria are free and work along the same lines, but there are some special schools, schools for languages like the English Language School, the Spanish Language School, schools for studying computers and a number of others and these schools are considered to be very good schools.

The way you enter them however is by competition. In other words, it’s not done by payment, although there are private schools. It’s done by competitive exam.

So my son decided to try for the Maths School.

Anyway, the reason for the scrummage in the picture above is that this is all the anxious and excited parents and children coming to see the results on the Sunday after the exam was taken

About 500 children enter for this exam and there are 120 or so places in the school.

I’m glad to say that my son came in at number 38 and that means that although he is not a maths genius, he’s doing pretty well and he will be able to enter in the fifth grade at the Maths School next September.

So congratulations to him and the others who were successful, and I suppose that as time goes by I’ll give one or two more bits of information about the education system in Bulgaria.

As I said my plan is to discuss transport and, just as a thought, I hear that next month in July, The price of tickets is going up.

It seems that everywhere, and Bulgaria is no different, prices are rising.

I'm John Rocha, Blog Master of Bulgarian Vistas.

I like to write from experience about living in Bulgaria, holidays in Bulgaria, Bulgarian food,

famous Bulgarians and ....

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All the best John