Members of the Education and Science Committee on of the Children, Youth and Sports Committee met with the European Commissioner for Education, Culture and Sport Tibor Navrachich.

The Chairperson of Education and Science Committee Milena Damyanova familiarized the EU Commissioner with the priorities in this area. She informed him that one of the recommendations of the monitoring report of the European Commission has already been fulfilled – in September the 43rd National Assembly adopted the Law on Pre-school and School Education, which introduced a number of reforms aimed to improve the quality of education. “Now comes the hard task of the Ministry of Education and Science to develop regulations so that as of next year the new law be implemented in the schools. What is really important is how the team of the Ministry together with the teachers and all parties concerned will develop the key competences in the educational programs so that young people of Bulgaria could graduate from school with skills required by businesses and labor market”, Milena Damyanova said.

The Chair of the Education Committee went on to inform that education is one of the priorities of the Bulgarian government which is reflected in the state budget for the next year. Underway are changes in the Higher Education Act, aimed to achieve greater convergence of business and education, she said.

Tibor Navrachich expressed the view that problems in education are directly related to European integration, and that youth unemployment is one of the biggest challenges for the European Union. In his words, education systems today are faced with yet another serious problem - to ensure social integration of migrants. “If we make sure that young people are more suited to the labor market and to the requirements of the business, this will mean that we have achieved a higher level of social cohesion and will have a greater degree of security in the European community”, said Commissioner Tibor Navrachich.

The MPs raised the questions of reviving the model of multiculturalism, Roma integration, restructuring of the European funds in education and harmonization of diplomas.

The Chairman of Children, Youth and Sport Committee Prof. Borislav Borisov recommended that “Erasmus +” programme be refined in oredr to make it more effective. “Without education there is no social integration, because illiteracy leads to professional marginalization”, said Prof. Borislav Borisov. He recommended the European Commission to put forward demands to the business in trems of students’ adaptation in order to improve communication between businesses and higher education.

Commissioner Tibor Navrachich informed the MPs that the European Commission is currently working on the restructuring of some of the projects under “Erasmus +” programme so as to facilitate integration of migrants and reduce youth unemployment.

"The clue lies in the inclusive education philosophy, because it covers all children - not only those of Roma and migrant communities, but also those who do not attend school. So far we used to include the child with the system; from now on we shall have to include the system with the child”, summarized Milena Damianova.