Responsible bodies
According to the Pre-school and School Act the state implement policies for enhancing the quality in education. The Regulatory documents oblige the education and training to be implemented under ensured quality in the educational system.
Quality assurance in the pre-school and school education is carried out by the responsible institutions on national, regional and school level.
On national level responsible institution is the Ministry of Education and Science that executes control functions in the school system via its specialized administration and units. It implements mechanism for transparency, publicity and annual analysis of the results got from the national external evaluations, which is used for preparation of policies and measures for guarantee of durable enhancing the education quality. The activities in the pre-school and school system are funded by the state budget, as the transfers for development of the kindergartens and schools incorporate funds for enhancing the quality.
The National Inspectorate for Education within the Council of Ministers is authority for external supervision of the kindergartens and schools.
On regional level the quality assurance in the school system is carried out by 28 Regional management units for education, that are the territory administrations for management and control of the pre-school and school system under the jurisdiction of the minister of education and science. They execute also methodological support to the kindergartens and schools by their specialized administration. Concerning the municipal kindergartens and schools, the mayors of the municipalities conduct the control.
On school level the quality assurance is carried out by the heads and deputy heads of kindergartens and schools. The schools are obliged to apply measures for enhancing the education quality. The Public Authorities Board suggest policies and measures for improvement the quality of the educational process based on results of self-assessment, external evaluation – for the schools and of inspection reports. On the other hand, the Pedagogical council adopt measures for enhancing the education quality. The heads of the kindergartens establish the measures.
There exist so called innovative schools (defined as innovative according to criteria set by the state educational standards) that achieve improvement of the education quality as:
- prepare and implement innovative elements concerning the organization and/or content of the education;
- organize in new or improved way the management, learning process and study environment;
- apply new methods of teaching;
- prepare in a new way the curricula, content and plans.
In this process actively take part also the pedagogical specialists. One of their obligations is to maintain and improve their qualification so to improve the quality of teaching, increase the results and the quality of the pupils’ preparation. The heads of schools are obliged to ensure the necessary conditions for this.
Approaches and Methods for Quality Assurance
Quality assurance in the pre-school and school education is related with the management of the quality. It is a continuous process of organisation development based on analysis, activities planning, evaluation and establish improvements in the work of kindergartens and schools. These activities can be carried out under regulations set by the state educational standard for management of the quality in the institutions. The evaluation is conducted by self-assessment and supervision.
The self-assessment is also regulated by the state educational standard for management of the quality in the institutions but the supervision under the state educational standard for inspection. The self-assessment is in fact internal evaluation of the delivered quality by activities, procedures and criteria, set by the educational institution.
The supervision is a process of preparation of an entire independent expert evaluation on the quality level of the activity in the kindergartens and schools at exact moment and also it suggests directions for improvements. It is carried out under criteria and indicators, grouped in areas. At least one supervision should be carried out in 5 years for each kindergarten and school.
By the evaluation can be defined and measured the achieved results in education and the level of preparation of the pupils for their future realization. One of its main goal is to monitor the educational process for applying policies and measures, aiming quality improvement. The evaluation is carried out during the study process, at the end of grade level or at stage of degree of education, when graduate degree of education. It can be internal when the mark is given by the teacher in class; external – when the mark is given by commission or expert/teacher but not the teacher in class. Depending of the cover the evaluation can be:
- covering pupils in one and the same grade in the whole country;
- covering pupils in one and the same grade from one or few regions;
- covering pupils in one and the same grade in one school.
The aims of the external evaluation at the end of grade level or at stage of degree of education are:
- diagnostics of the individual progress and of the pupils’ educational needs;
- monitoring of the educational process for applying policies and measures contributing for quality improvement;
- defining the degree of achievement of results for each study subject in the curricula for each grade and stage of degree of education;
The national external evaluations in the school system are carried out at the end of IV, VII or Х grade.
The exams within the national external evaluation at the end of IV grade are in the Bulgarian language and literature and in mathematics; those at the end of VII grade are also in Bulgarian language and literature and mathematics but voluntary the pupils are allowed to sin an examination in foreign language; those at the end of Х grade the obligatory exams are also in Bulgarian language and literature and mathematics but the voluntary exams are foreign language and IT subject.
The school-leaving examinations (SLE) for graduating secondary school education are allowed to pupils successfully passed the exams up to XII grade. The obligatory SLE exam is in Bulgarian language and literature and second by choice of the pupil. Voluntary it is allowed third exam in another subject. Some universities can enrol students based on the SLE performance.
The Center for assessment in the pre-school and school education within the structure of the Ministry of Education and Science is a state specialized unit for activity related to the organization, preparation and conducting of internal and external assessment, of school-leaving examinations and related to participation in international studies intended to evaluate educational systems. It is involved also in the process of assessment of pupils’ study results in the school education and in the process of diagnostics of the children’s readiness for school in the pre-school education; supports methodologically in the organization, preparation and conducting the regional external assessments; organizes preparation of exam materials for various exams; prepares procedures and instruments for internal assessment in the school education; prepares and supplies with analysis of the study and readiness results in the pre-school and school education and of the influencing factors; participates in the conducting of the international studies and analyses and disseminate their results, etc.
Up to now active Ordinance № 16/2016 for management of the quality in the institutions has been repealed as of October 2020.
Legislative References
Pre-school and School Education Act https://www.mon.bg/upload/12190/zkn_PUObr_180717.pdf