The older generations in Bulgaria received much better education (both high school and university) simply because at that time the system was not falling apart. Once the 1990s came and the changes in the Bulgarian political system and society took place, the educational system greatly suffered along with any other aspect of life in Bulgaria. The high levels of unemployment in any sphere of the economy (including education), and the low (to put it mildly) salaries in education, produced a situation where either there was not enough teachers, or they were not very good or motivated. I know that the material in the books is important, but my personal opinion is that having really good teachers is way more important. And so lack of good teachers, or at least enough of them, led to a very poor education. Unfortunately. Personally, I have never had any better teachers than the ones I had in the period between 9 and 11 grade in high school (but then again, I am older). They made it a point not only to teach us what was in the school books, but to teach us about life in general. And no, it was not a private school. Not even a prestigious public school. A very ordinary public school that just happened to be close to where I lived. All of our teachers were female.