Frozen education policy

"A year after the largest teachers' strike in Bulgarian history educational policy remains frozen," Monitor notes. "The strike produced a barrage of competing voices instead of productive debate. And although teachers, trade unionists and the government were supposedly talking about education, what they were really talking about was money. The one side was thinking about how it could get money and the other about how it could withhold it. Nor was there a debate about education policy in parliament. ... And indeed, how could there be if most of the appointments to the assorted posts are meted out during telephone calls with the education authorities. We should not play down the role of teachers in the declining quality of education, but at present it's the management that carries most of the blame for perpetuating a sick educational environment that demotivates everyone involved."

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