The National Network for Children Bulgaria reported that there are teachers willing to work with vulnerable students in Bulgaria, but only one teacher from the city of Shumen has been approved by the Ministry of Education under the Motivated Teachers program, which has a budget of 1.7 million BGN. At the same time, over 3,000 people have displayed interest in the Professional and Leadership Development Program of the Teach for Bulgaria Foundation, from September 2019 to the present (January 2020). The Teach for Bulgaria Foundation has been working for 10 years to ensure that every child in Bulgaria has access to quality education and the opportunity to realize their potential, regardless of their socio-economic background. Applications for the 2020 program will be accepted until 10 February on the zaednovchas.bg website.
Participants in the Teach for Bulgaria Foundation program have the opportunity to receive specially developed trainings, mentoring support, teacher qualifications, career opportunities, useful resources, financial incentives, professional contacts and strong friendships. Teach for Bulgaria's training program is designed to effectively prepare teachers to focus on their student's needs, and includes methods that help all students progress. Their trainings use educational models adapted to the Bulgarian context, and are also based on Teach for Bulgaria's 10 years of experience.
The Ministry of Education and Science, with its Motivated Teachers program, intended to address the lack of sufficiently qualified teachers in problematic areas in the country by forming a team of 80 teachers. The program began in 2019, and sought out teachers with at least 8 years of experience to work in schools with identified problem areas, such as low performance and students with low social status. Unfortunately, the conditions of the MES program, which included a 300 BGN salary bonus, plus 200 BGN per month to cover rent or reimbursement and/or transportation costs, only attracted 4 applicants by the application deadline in May 2019. After extending the deadline and improving the conditions (an additional 500 BGN to the base salary), only three individuals wished to participate in the program and only 1 candidate received the approval to teach.
You can read the detailed article about the Teach for Bulgaria Foundation program and the modules of the MES Motivated Teachers program on the National Network for Children Bulgaria's page in Bulgarian.