News

14 February 2024

Today Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science at the National Assembly unanimously cast fifteen YES votes for an amendment proposed by Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva whereon the act amended would afford high school graduates a second chance to take a high school exit exam in order to sit next university entrance exams if the regular exam marks do not satisfy them.

The proposal was put forward by the Chair of the Committee Krasimir Valchev (GERB/Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) and a group of MPs – Denitsa Sacheva (GERB), Prof. Kostadin Angelov (GERB), Elisaveta Belobradova (PP-DB/We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria), Neli Dimitrova (PP-DB), Hristo Daskalov (PP-DB), Byunyamin Hasan (PP-DB), Ivaylo Mitkovski (PP-DB) and Vanina Vetsina (PP-DB).

The reason for the amendment proposed by the Ombudsman to the preceding 48^th National Assembly is to be attributed to the increasing number of complaints and reports submitted to the Ombudsman Institution by parents and high school graduates who deem it unacceptable to be denied a second chance to take the mandatory high school graduation (exit) exams in order to improve their marks. Parents insist that their children should have the opportunity to improve their marks in the high school graduation exams since until now they remained “for life” without any chance to be improved.

The Ombudsman proposed to the Members of the previous Parliament an amendment to Art. 132 of the Pre-school and School Education Act and an addendum to Art. 68, para 1, subpara 2 of the Higher Education Act that were approved by the relevant committee on first reading but there was no time for their final ratification. Therefore, in June 2023 Prof. Diana Kovacheva again submitted her proposal to the 49^th National Assembly, to Speaker Rosen Zhelyazkov and to the members of the Committee on Education and Science and insisted that school leavers who are not satisfied with their marks in the high school graduation exams should be given a chance to retake the exams to score better marks.

“The denial of an opportunity to high school graduates who did not perform well in the school graduation exams, except for those who failed, to improve their marks, is a damage to their afterschool career. The marks in the State School Graduation Exams are final and determining in their application for university enrolment, respectively, these marks are important for the high school graduates’ future. The impossibility enforced by the existing legislation for high school graduates to improve their marks in the State School Graduation Exams by a chance to retake the exams impacts negatively their application for university enrolment,” the Ombudsman argued in her proposal.

The idea for the amendment is to make it possible for high school graduates who aspire to become university students to have a one-off chance within one school year reckoned from the date of the first State School Graduation Exam to retake the exam as scheduled in order to improve their mark for which they will be issued a certificate to certify the new mark that is more agreeable to them.

For this purpose, an Art. 135а is incorporated into the Pre-school and School Education Act to provide for a possibility for high school graduates to retake the exam.