The demographic crisis in Bulgaria that started decades ago has begun to manifest itself in secondary schools. For the new school year, which is to begin on September 15, 5000 high school teachers will be laid off, according to Bulgarian Teachers Union leader Yanka Takeva, as quoted by Focus news agency.

Takeva also said that the demographic crisis was expected to reach its peak in the period 2008/2009, when the number of students will be critically low.

Takeva also said that due to the lack of students, 350 schools had been closed around the country. The hardest-hit regions have been Razgrad, Kurdjali, Turgovishte and Rousse.

This is but a continuation of the problem that has been encountered since earlier times in Bulgarian kindergartens and primary schools.
 
In her interview with Focus, the union leader also touched on problems like the chronic need for IT (information technology) and foreign languages teachers. According to her, this was becoming a sad tendency, inflicted by the permanent lack of state policy to set higher salaries and to attract more specialists to the schools.

Takeva said that the profession had become feminised, implying that being the bread-winners, men preferred to seek jobs in the private sector, where pay was better.

She explained that a difference in teacher salaries was imminent. A teacher's pay in a small town or a village topped out at 590 leva, with a teacher working in a Sofia school receiving up to 639 leva. Other factors, such as level of education and further specialisation, as well as career history, should be taken into consideration when a teacher's salary was calculated, she said.