site.btaBulgaria's 2025 Matriculation Exams: Students Tend to Choose English, Show Little Interest in Engineering, Technical Studies

The planning of the matriculation exams which are due to take place in Bulgarian schools on May 21 and 23 is proceeding normally, Education and Science Minister Krasimir Valchev said on Tuesday’s morning talk show of bTV. He expects about 50,000 students to sit the exams and between 13,000 and 14,000 teachers to oversee the process.

English is the most preferred subject for the exams. It has been chosen by more than 13,000 school-goers. Mathematics ranks second, picked by 2,400 students. Valchev said he is worried about the low interest in natural sciences, which he attributed to much too busy syllabuses and insufficient time to have knowledge sink in.

“Bulgaria is faced with a major challenge associated with low interest in engineering and technical studies and poor learning results in mathematics and natural sciences,” Valchev said. According to him, one of the reasons is that syllabuses lay too much emphasis on the study of foreign languages.

School students spend the longest time studying foreign languages, longer than the time allocated to mathematics, natural sciences and the Bulgarian language and literature, the minister noted. He said new concepts are to be introduced to widen the scope of general learning, with an eye on helping young people adapt to the labour market.