SOFIA | Asen Georgiev is a senior student of Bulgarian philology at Sofia University, training to become a teacher of Bulgarian language and literature. But, like many other people his age, he is already employed in an unrelated field: journalism. Though he enjoys the teaching practicum required by his program, he says he does not see himself working as a teacher anytime soon.
One of the main reasons, although it is not the only one, is money. The starting salary of a young teacher with no post-graduate work experience in the Bulgarian education system is 200 euros per month. Georgiev earns more than twice that working as a journalist, but says he would consider becoming a teacher if he could make ends meet on a teacher’s salary, or to combine the two professions. Other equally important reasons for his reluctance to enter the teaching profession are what he sees as Bulgaria’s overly traditional education approach, and the government’s lack of a clear vision for education reform. Having taught in ten schools as a practice-teacher, Georgiev says that nothing he has seen gives him hope the system will change for the better.
“The teachers are very conservative, and most are afraid to use new technologies as a teaching method,” he explained. “They are sometimes even hostile to young teachers who teach using [multimedia] presentations, videos, and other interactive methods.”
Missing in Action
“Young teachers are missing from Bulgarian schools,” explained Katya Doynova, principal of the 163rd school in the capital city, Sofia. “Out of 25 teachers who work in my school, 21 have more than 10 years of work experience.”
The 2009 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), revealed that 36.3 percent of teachers in Bulgaria are over the age of 50, versus a meager 6.9 percent under the age of 30.
“When the current teachers in the schools retire, who is going to teach Bulgarian children?” Doynova lamented.
The aging workforce in the education sector has important financial implications, as well. The more work experience a teacher has, the higher his or her salary is, raising the share of the education budget spent on teachers’ wages over other needed resources and expenses, a fact throughout many of the OECD countries. In 2005, for example, the average share of the education budget spent on teachers’ wages among OECD countries was 63 percent. And iIn 2006, the salary of a teacher with 15 years of work experience was 35 percent higher than that of a starting teacher.
Accordingly, recent reforms in the remuneration system in Bulgaria have put a strain on the education budget. Teachers with 10 years of experience now receive far higher salaries than their younger counterparts, who, as mentioned above, bring in an uncompetitive 200 euros per month. Older teachers, by contrast, can earn as much as twice that.
Discrepancies in Pay
The pay increases may have soothed disaffected Bulgarian teachers who took to the streets in the fall of 2007 to protest their low salaries. But the differentiated pay levels introduced in the wake of those disruptive teacher strikes has only deepened the generation gap in Bulgarian schools.
“It rewards experience at the expense of other factors, like using innovative methods, or working with children with disabilities,” says Diana Shopova, a literature teacher in Sofia. “These are also rewarded, but have less weight in the overall remuneration package.”
Even though Shopova herself has over two decades of experience, she understands the risk in overvaluing all those years in front of the blackboard. “The fact that somebody has more than 10 years of experience does not necessarily mean they are a good teacher,” she says.
Shopova worries over the lack of young colleagues at school, but what she finds most disturbing is that the young teachers who do choose to enter the profession are usually those who have no other options. Teaching is frequently a graduate’s second choice – or last resort.
Asen Georgiev shares her worry: “Unfortunately, those who become teachers, at the moment, are those who cannot find another better paying job.”
Katya Doynova, the school principal in Sofia, has a different perspective in the debate over salary, believing that more money should definitely go to those who have made a commitment to education as their career. “…If a teacher has stayed in the profession for more than 10 years, it means teaching is their vocation,” she says. Doynova is more critical of the difference in teachers’ pay between smaller and larger schools.
Bulgarian schools are now operating on a per capita basis, a long-awaited reform to the structure of education funding. The more students a school has, the more money it gets from the state budget – and the higher its teachers’ salaries. Teachers working in schools with 800-1,200 students thus receive 50 to 100 euros more per month than their colleagues in smaller schools. Doynova’s school, for example, has only 308 students, meaning the average salary of a teacher is a bit higher than 300 euros. At larger schools, teachers get 350-400 euro, she says.
“This was one of the first effects we felt from the strike in 2007: Principals of larger schools could be real managers having bigger budgets at their disposal. Most of those principals are doing a very good job, and the teachers at their schools are receiving decent remuneration,” Doynova added.
However, the changes have also meant that many smaller schools potentially risk going bankrupt and getting shut down due to a lack of students and state support.
Crisis or Opportunity?
When Bulgarian teachers talk about the future, the generation gap among them becomes even more tangible. While older teachers are afraid that, after they retire, there will be no one left to teach Bulgarian children, younger teachers see their absence as potentially bringing more opportunities for a new generation of teachers to exert a positive influence on the education system. Many believe older teachers are less capable of adapting to changes, especially those who began their careers before 1989.
“The moment when the current generation of teachers retires will either put everything to an end, or it will be very good for the Bulgarian education,” said Asen, the teacher-in-teaching
