Bilateral Agreements

The bilateral agreements in the field of education, science and culture constitute the policy framework of different scholarship schemes development, students’ admission facilities improvement, co-operation between educational institutions, mutual recognition of qualifications and study periods undertaken abroad. The existing bilateral cooperation is often complemented by multilateral initiatives, thus reaching both European dimension and context. An emphasis is put on project and research development.

Bulgaria has bilateral agreements for cooperation in the field of education with: USA, Republic of Vietnam, Kingdom of Morocco, Republic of India, Republic of Armenia, the United Mexican States, Republic of Argentina, Republic of Cuba, Hashemites Kingdom of Jordan, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kingdom of Thailand, Organzation for Liberation of Palestina, 'Republic of Belarus,Mongolia, Peoples Republic of China, Republic of Korea, Ukraine, Japan, Russian Federation, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Former Yugoslavic Republic of Macedonia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Albania.

The most common cooperation is exchange of students and academic staff.

Cooperation and Participation in Worldwide Programmes and Organizations

UNESCO

The national network of UNESCO schools who are "ambassadors" of quality and innovations in educations is one of the main achievements of this cooperation. In additions, Bulgaria has been involved in various project and initiatives supported by UNESCO on a wide range of topics from human rights to historical and cultural heritage.

Council of Europe

Bulgaria’s cooperation with the Council of Europe in the field of education has mainly focused on the projects related to the Education for Democtaric Citizenship and Human Rights, Language and Intercultural Education, intercultural education (via the implementation of the White Paper of Intercultural Dialogue), the training of educational professionals, and to the social and cultural diversity.

Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization

Co-operation in the field of school education focusses on 2 topics:

• sustainable use of water for industrial and domestic purposes.
• protecting the Black Sea environment.

Cooperation process in the South-Eastern Europe

Bulgaria actively supports the ongoing regional educational activities within the framework of the Process, participating in different initiatives oriented towards the democratic stability and progress through education in the region.

UNICEF Office in Bulgaria

Main topics of projects in partnership with UNICEF:

• Prevention of school drop-out.
• School without violence and development of life skills.

Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF)

Bulgaria became member of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) in 1993 and ever since it has been considered a strategic and important partner of the Organisation in regional and global scale. Its status as a phrancophonic country is owed to the 55 secondary schools, where French language is intensively taught, to the Chairs in French Philology and the Departments in different fields of study, within the structure of some universities, where the instruction and the education is provided exclusively in French; the country also owes its status to the French Teachers’ and Teachers Trainers’ Association in Bulgaria.

International Committee of the Red Cross

The cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross in the field of education was carried out in the year 2008/2009 and 2010 with the aim to promote officially the programme Exploring Humanitarian Law among teaching and learning school audiences across the country. The Programme was initially introduced to 100 philosophy and history teachers and teacher trainers through organizing training events for them in order to make them familiar with the interactive approaches and teaching methods via which the Programme is intended to achieve its aims. In 2009 a country-wide testing of the Programme was launched, encompassing about 100 schools of various size, pupil population and types, in 22 regions. The Programme was tested in its short version and in a free elective class, however, the follow-up evaluation suggested that the interest on part of pupils, teachers and schools was significant and quite an amount of activities were implemented in support of the realization of EHL. As part of the developed cooperation with the ICRC, the digital resources – textbooks, manuals, testing and working sheets, photos, videos etc. were translated into Bulgarian and reproduced for regular use for schools. In 2010, the Minister of Education, Youth and Science approved of the official integration of EHL Programme in compulsory schooling. The teachers, teaching “Ethics and Law”, “Geography and Economy” and the subject “World and Personality” can make use of the resources and of the EHL Programme at their discretion in free and/or compulsory elective classes.