Vocational education

Education sector reforms in the works aim to support students from low-income families while merging technical colleges and abolishing vocational training institutes. 

As a result, electrical mobility sector in Bulgaria has a shortage of more than 500 specialists, which necessitates strengthening and expanding the training through the opening of specialties in new schools, reports mediapool. 

A compulsory and free pre-primary education should be introduced for 4- and 5-year-old children, Ombudswoman Maya Manolova said during a discussion on ethnic integration in Asenovgrad.

She estimated the associated costs at nearly BGN 19 million.

The government has approved the inclusion of a new training and employment programme into the national employment plan for 2017, the government's press office said, quoted by bTV. 

Illustration - PHOTO: TANJUG/ MILOJKO MARKOVIC

All signatories to UN's Sustainable Development Agenda, including Serbia, will have to introduce compulsory secondary education by 2030.

Some 10,000 refugee and migrant children up to the age of 15 will be attending Greek schools by mid-February, according to the Education Ministry, which is also working on a similar plan to provide vocational training to people aged between 15 and 24.

The Council of State has lifted a regulation permitting governor's offices to unilaterally convert ordinary high schools into vocational religious high schools without considerating the needs of locals, a Turkish education union announced on Dec. 28.

The European Commission released its “Education and Training Monitor 2016” report, which among other things, notes that Greeks have poorer digital skills compared to the EU average, while there has been a reversal on tertiary education autonomy.

Greek university graduates have inadequate skills, compared to their peers in the rest of Europe, to access highly sought jobs, according to a report by the European Center for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) regarding job prospects in Greece and Europe.

Turkey is one of the countries with the lowest spending per student, according to a report prepared by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The report titled "Education at a Glance 2016" stated that Turkey's public expenditures for primary and secondary education were below the OECD average.