site.btaOver 2,200 STEM Centres Have Been Built in Bulgarian Schools Under Recovery Plan

Over 2,200 STEM centres have been built in Bulgarian schools under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), Education and Science Minister Krasimir Valchev said in Vratsa at the opening of a STEM centre at the Professional Natural and Mathematical High School on Tuesday.

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

”I remember when in 2019 we first discussed and prepared a programme for the construction of a modern STEM environment. Then we managed to finance 250 STEM centres, which we showed as a good model. As a result, in 2020, when the RRP was developed, we set out to build STEM centres in all of the remaining 2,000+ schools," Valchev said.

He noted that the investment in the new STEM centre in the Vratsa high school amounts to nearly BGN 350,000, which is provided by the European Union. The space is located on the third floor of the school and includes furniture and high-tech equipment for five classrooms for students from the Applied Programming programme, as well as two offices for informatics, information technologies and mathematics.

“With the construction of the STEM centre, we set ourselves the goal of increasing the motivation of our students to learn, their love for mathematics and technological sciences and to increase educational results,” said the school director, Tanya Vasileva. "This third floor, which was in terrible condition until a year ago, is now a place where students from the Applied Programming cohorts study with pleasure, show their intellect and very high results," Vasileva pointed out, adding that the school's library has also been renovated.

The opening of the STEM centre was also attended by Vratsa Mayor Kalin Kamenov, Regional Governor Nikolay Rumenov, MPs Martin Harizanov and Krasen Krastev, as well as the Head of the Regional Department of Education in Vratsa Loreta Koleva.