site.btaVeliko Tarnovo University Hosts International Conference on Bulgarian Schools Abroad

An international conference for those involved in educating children from Bulgarian schools around the world opened at Veliko Tarnovo University (VTU) on Wednesday.

The conference will take place until July 4 forum and brings together 35 teachers, directors and experts, who are representatives of Bulgarian Sunday schools in 11 countries, including Spain, Greece, Italy, Germany and Austria. The conference programme includes activities aimed at exchanging good practices in teaching Bulgarian language and culture in a foreign language environment, as well as improving the quality of student practices under the Erasmus+ programme in Bulgarian schools abroad. 

VTU Vice-Rector Assoc. Prof. Anna Ivanova emphasized that this year’s theme presents the school as a social reality and a place for meeting between individuals. "We chose it because education is a form of communication," she noted, adding that she hopes for the implementation of a productive dialogue, exchange of knowledge, good practices and ideas for future fruitful cooperation. Ivanova thanked that the teachers and principals are ready for new forms of cooperation, such as the development of extracurricular activities, the development of methodological tools and work on research projects. 

Speaking to journalists, Ivanova said that at the end of the meeting, the directors and teachers from Bulgarian schools abroad will receive as a donation the over 300 books and teaching aids collected from a charity campaign organized by VTU's Department of International and Internal Cooperation.

Veneta Nenkova, Founder of the Bulgarian school in Rome, told journalists that as an employee of the Vatican, she has the opportunity to enter some of the archives there and manages to purchase documents that relate to the history of Bulgaria. "Together with teachers and students, we translate them and rediscover our history, and this year we will publish a book about the events related to the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1876-1878", she emphasized, adding that they have purchased 1,800 pages of the papal newspaper, which will be systematized in one edition. Another book about the most important places in Italy related to Bulgarian history is also forthcoming, she noted.

The Bulgarian school in Rome has over 100 students, but Nenkova expressed hope that more parents will understand that their children need to know Bulgarian. She stressed that the main problem of Bulgarian schools abroad is that only 10% of Bulgarians believe that their children should know their native language. "This is a fact that I do not understand and very often we have to convince parents of the importance of their children not severing their ties with Bulgaria," Nenkova pointed out, adding that in this way grandmothers and grandchildren often cannot communicate with each other.

The conference is coordinated with the activities under the National Development and Promotion of Bulgarian Studies Abroad Programme.