Apparently this is my week to talk about education in Bulgaria. I started with <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/10/02/teaching-in-bulgarian-schools-2/" target="_blank">my experience on the Fulbright teaching in a public school</a> and then I moved on to <a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/2011/10/03/teaching-at-acs/" target="_blank">discussing teaching at ACS a private school here in Sofia</a>.

Today, it's a new program <a href="http://zaednovchas.bg/" target="_blank">Teach for Bulgaria</a>.

Last spring teachers-in-training came to ACS to observe our classes as a part of the Teach for Bulgaria program. My understanding is that this program is similar to <a href="http://www.teachforamerica.org/" target="_blank">Teach for America in the States</a>. Basically, talented and passionate young people are recruited to teach for two years in high need schools.

It's a hugely ambitious program and I have a lot of respect for the Bulgarians who are currently teaching as a part of this program.<!--more-->

I think it's pretty safe to say that most public schools in Bulgaria are kind of a mess--between administrative challenges, staffing shortages, poor textbooks and a general lack of interest on the part of many students. Given this laundry list of problems it's hard to even imagine where to start but Teach for Bulgaria is giving it a go.

The Teach for Bulgaria website paints the picture in even starker terms:
<ul>
	<li>The average teacher in Bulgaria is 50 years old (Ministry of Education). Over 38% of teachers are 50 and older. Only 3.4 percent are under 30 and 0.5 percent are 25 or younger (NSI).</li>
	<li>Students from linguistic minorities and low-income families consistently score lower than their peers from more affluent families on state subject exams.  (World Bank).</li>
	<li>Less than half of the 15-year-olds in Bulgaria manage to meet the critical threshold in reading and math skills defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (World Bank).</li>
</ul>
I have to say that reading these statistics makes me really sad but that I am glad that there are young professionals who are willing to tackle this <em>giant</em> problem.

Here's to Teach for Bulgaria!!