School administration and management includes the following members: head teacher, deputy head teachers in the educational, administrative-economic, and educational-manufacturing activities. The sole managing body and employer is the head teacher, the deputy head teachers help the principal in performing his/her obligations.

Administrative staff includes a cashier, an accountant, and a secretary.

Requirements for Appointment

Heads of schools are appointed on the basis of competition according to the framework rules for conducting competitions for taking on the position of principal of a state or municipal school or obsluzhvashto zveno (servicing unit). Applicants for head teacher’s position should answer the following requirements:

• to be Bulgarian citizens;
• not to have been convicted prisoners or to have had no disciplinary sanctions, except for cancelled ones;
• to have a Bachelor’s or Master’s higher education degree and a teacher’s professional qualification or pedagogical capacity, allowing them to fulfill the norm for compulsory teaching activity at the school for which they are applying;
• to have no less than three years of teaching experience.

Competition is conducted through a written examination and an interview with a five-member commission comprising of experts form the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science, head of department and/or senior experts at the Regional Inspectorate of Education of the respective region, a representative of the financing body.

Conditions of Service

With a view to the variety of functions the heads of schools, kindergartens and obsluzhvashti zvena (servicing units) have to perform, the norms for compulsory teaching activity of principal are lower than those for teachers – they are determined according to the number of classes and groups and the type of school, kindergarten or servicing unit.

The basic salary of principals is determined according to the category of the school (schools are divided into categories according to the number classes, the principal of first-category schools receive the highest salary), higher personal qualification /having a qualification or scientific degree/, the length of service and the quotient to the minimal working salary.

The average salary for heads of pre-primary and primary schools on an annual basis is 4270 EUR.