“I heard that protesters have set up a tent city in the main square,” Hristo Boev said over lunch. Images of a sea of pointed structures like those greeting IMF, WTO and G-8 summits reeled through my mind…until we came upon a portable canopy under some trees. Next to it laid a single blue one-person tent. Placards were impaled in the ground not far away.

One of the four people presiding over it, Vassil Frankov, a sport teacher at Geo Milev Language High School in Dobrich, said its purpose was to convey a loud and clear message to Sofia as to the resolve of educators all over Bulgaria in their demands for a 100 per cent pay raise.

Dragomir Georgiev, an instructor of Bulgarian language and literature, said that they have encountered many of the thousands of their current and former students. “They have been very supportive. Having taught well has paid off,” he said with a grin.

“Everyone, in fact, has responded very favourably to our campaign,” said Frankov, as he flipped through sheet after sheet of names and signatures that they had amassed in less than a week. “People shake our hands. They give us words of encouragement. Here’s a pen. You too can take part in history…”

(Un)fair assessements
Our discussion had all the while been overshadowed by a heated row between two women. “That lady is saying that teachers like them only work five hours a day baby-sitting children, while she has to toil in a private company for at least eight, with only a few weeks of annual holiday, whereas they get the whole summer off,” explained Boev, a job training co-ordinator. The other woman defended her profession, pointing out that they had to spend considerable time outside the classroom preparing for lessons on complex subjects and correcting homework and exams, not to mention dealing with hyperactive teenagers.

Boev explained that many people here feel that way: that they alone are overworked, overexploited, putting in overtime, and undervalued, under-appreciated and underpaid. Therefore they alone are entitled to a raise. Money is a finite pie; pay increases for some come at the stagnation or even expense of others.

Frankov then admitted that in the beginning, few people paid any heed their cause. “But then thankfully, public awareness suddenly sprung up on October 7 and swung decisively in our favour.” He was referring to an incident following negotiations between the Government and teachers’ unions. Minister of Education Daniel Vulchev and Minister of Finance Plamen Oresharski, thinking that all microphones had been turned off, began a private dialogue. What they failed to realise was that someone had forgotten to switch off the bTV mic. “Let’s end this sedyanka (a term referring to a sitting of village women knitting and gossiping),” along with other inflammatory remarks was what the whole country overheard them say.

The other lady having moved on, Nadya Baklarova justified the placement of a tent on municipality lawn. “It’s very humiliating,” the German language-instructor began. “After 27 years of dedicated teaching, with my professional qualifications, to get only 350 leva a month – 350 leva.” She said that this sum fell far short of the minimum needed to raise a family, let alone live a decent life. “And the same people responsible bemoan our shrinking population.”

A petition-signer having heard our discussion joined in. Maya Petrova Mileva had taught in elementary school for 28 years, but the salary, as she put it, was such a disgrace for her devotion to the community that she finally left. But life outside school proved tougher than within. “Despite my experience, university education and credentials, the only job I could obtain was that of a cleaning lady,” she said. That was seven years ago. She has often run into her former students, now grown up, many of them sporting suits and ties. “Some smile and say hello; others turn the other way, pretending not to have seen me.”

Not only the money
At this point, three other women dropped by, all teachers from the same school. “We have not seen a significant increase in salaries since the changes; and yet the price of basic foodstuff has skyrocketed in recent months: bread, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and especially cheese,” said Borislava Djambazova, a French instructor.

But they emphasised that wages was only part of a much broader picture surrounding the whole educational system. “Coming up with sound educational policies, along with designing, implementing and modifying school curricula, programmes and course contents, is crucial in producing well-rounded graduates prepared for further studies or work,” explained Zlatka Popova, who also teaches French. “The process must, by necessity, take time, and be careful and ongoing, one that cannot be done in a one-dimensional or ad hoc fashion.”

More to the point, she said that currently all major decisions and undertakings were made by ministers, bureaucrats and academics in their ivory towers, without the inclusion or involvement of the front-line foot-soldiers – classroom teachers. She provided the case of textbooks.

“The ones currently issued to secondary schools are much too difficult for our purposes,” Popova said. “They should be more user-friendly, and comprehensible to teenagers.” As it were, textbooks are written by university professors in the format most familiar to them: scholarly.

Instead she insisted that professors needed to collaborate and work in conjunction with teachers and education specialists, who provide essential feedback and suggestions, with the students and classroom context in mind to produce more suitable teaching and learning material.

As of now, Popova said that the only decision school teachers were able to make was whether to use a textbook on offer. Often times they do not. But this makes their lives just as difficult, as they have to come up with their own lectures from scratch (in this regard, foreign language teachers have the luxury of using books imported from the target languages’ home country, which can better achieve their goals).

Another of the teachers’ gripes was that few schools in the country were adequately supplied with the latest classroom ware: interactive learning media, laboratory equipment, workshops, library material – all standard fare in other European and American schools. “We still use blackboards,” piped Djambazova.

In conjunction with this, teachers, like all other professionals, need continuous upgrading of their knowledge and skills in their subject area, along with new teaching methodologies and techniques. “Every instructor should take courses and attend conferences, seminars, training sessions, and in the case of foreign languages, visit the country of the language concerned, ideally once a year,” said Popova. Unfortunately most are unable to take full advantage of these opportunities due to constraints of time, money and availability.

On both sides of ‘89
Having taught during communism, Popova said that in a sense, things have not changed much since then. “Nowadays far more choices exist, but we still cannot exercise full control in adopting and using them.”

In order to achieve these goals and a host of others, ultimately, bringing Bulgarian education in line with European Union standards requires massive reforms – but these are resisted by vested interests, the teachers said.

They are nonetheless inevitable. Baklarova cited the Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes proclaimed in 1998 that upheld, among other things, the right for every child to access proper schooling, and that the living standard and well-being of a society is a reflection of the quality and quantity of the education, knowledge and skills that its citizens acquire over their lifetime, but especially in their early, formative years.

Another signer, Yanko Yankov, said it was about time the teachers went on strike. As a musician, he had visited many countries, and saw first hand the importance of education and national well being.

He noted that Portugal had the distinction of having both the highest illiteracy and school drop-out rates in Europe, and the lowest per capital GNP in the eurozone, having even been eclipsed by Slovenia, a former communist Yugoslav republic, albeit one bordering Italy and Austria.

What is more, statistically, aside from such outliers as the much media-hyped Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, the more schooling a person has, the more success s/he will likely enjoy in his or her careers and life.

The great irony is that the one notable exception to this equation is to be found in the teaching profession. As a consequence, many experienced educators have moved on to more lucrative careers or destinations abroad, while the young generation opt for more glamorous majors.

Baklarova fretted that if current trends continue, the education and training that the younger generation acquires from the public school system will become a “non-convertible currency”, meaning that their qualifications and certificates will not be recognised outside Bulgaria – and perhaps even within by foreign investors.

But would increasing teachers’ salaries make any (positive) differences in students’ academic performances? Would that not make instructors more complacent? Baklarova contended that higher pay would make teachers more enthusiastic and passionate in the classroom – which would radiate and rub off upon their students. But for her, this was really an afterthought. “In fact a higher remuneration is rightfully ours. We have earned it. We deserve it. I have shaped and moulded my students to what they have become – the best!”

Bulgaria’s new cities
On the issue of the strike itself, it is nothing out of the ordinary; teachers have made the same demands and staged numerous smaller strikes going back more than 15 years. This time they feel confident, observers believe, from the assumption that they are now under the aegis of Brussels, which will protect them and champion their cause.

Closer to home, the teachers have looked north, across the Danube for inspiration. Their Romanian counterparts had also gone on strike in 2000. After 29 days, the teachers, frustrated by impasse, then threatened to resign en mass. The government then acceded to their demand – a 100 per cent pay raise, though in absolute terms, it still did not amount to much.

Classes had gone as usual at Geo Milev for the first week before teachers went on full strike on September 24. Djambazova proudly claimed that they were one of the first to do so, with others joining later, but only because they had to first submit the mandatory seven-day notice first.

And within each school, the decision on whether to walk out was an entirely individual choice. She and many colleagues had been eager from the onset. Others were hesitant at first, but as the domino effect took hold, all but six out of 70 teachers joined the ranks. Many simply followed the herd, having little inkling or concern beyond the central theme of the strike. And those still teaching do so with only their students, attending only their classes.

Djambazova, however, maintained that it was not the case of these non-strikers being stool pigeons. “They would have an elderly parent to look after or had debts to pay, and thus were in no position to skip a pay cheque, as striking workers are not paid.”

The strikers have settled into a daily routine of sitting in their empty classrooms for the school day. After that, they parade through in the city centre, singing old revolutionary songs and holding rallies. Krasimira Koutina, a teacher of English literature at a tourism high school in Varna, recalled how on their first march, an elderly man from his second storey window shouted at them saying that they should not get a raise, and that they will not get one. “My pension is only 50 euro a month. What about us?” Someone suggested that retirees also strike.

Another time a woman selling banitsa in a shop called out to the procession: “Why are you striking? You’re already making lots of money giving private lessons.” The teachers responded that they do not do this to buy a Mercedes, but out of sheer survival. Furthermore these lessons cut into their non-working hours, time they should be spending with their families and on personal pursuits.

The effect is widespread
Many teachers suspect that parents secretly wish them to return to class empty handed, so as to maintain the status quo of readily available cheap labour in the form of individual tutors for their children. Koutina said the solution was for schools to provide extra lesson programmes in the afternoon and on Saturdays, open to all student free of charge (but under a new salary scheme).

Indeed Iliyana Mihailova, a physics teacher at the Secondary Comprehensive School Kiril and Metodii in Beloslav, who alone stood watch over a tent protest in Varna, said that, like other homeroom teachers, she received about 10 calls a day from parents complaining that the strike had set their kids loose the streets, and asking when it would end.

Though she could not give a definite answer on that, she could point out that they had collected more than 26 000 signatures in the past week and a half since two large tents had been set up behind her. “Every night up to six teachers sleep in them,” she said. On the table was a sign asking for support in four languages. “We have had 10 foreigners sign our petition in the past two hours, including one from Portugal,” she said.

Just then some students came up. They say they were in full solidarity with the teachers and their demands. “It’s very unfortunate that it had to come to this,” said Marina and Miroslav. “But we might as well make the best of it…by cruisin’ and chillin’!”

The teachers, for their part, insisted they harbour no malicious intents. Baklarova said that this was all the government’s fault, in that the teachers’ requests have fallen on deaf ears going back to the early 1990s. “We were about to strike in September 2006, but decided to give them one more chance…and still they slighted us. Well they’ve been forewarned, and we can’t bluff any longer,” she explained.

But where would the extra money for raises come from? That question was posed by Kris, a young man, to Mihailova during a heated discussion. He thinks the situation is hopeless, like everything else here, hence his intention of joining relatives in Calgary.

Options, but not choices
One Government solution that terrifies many teachers is what is euphemistically referred to as downsizing and restructuring.

The teachers do acknowledge that in some instances, such as in village schools with three or four teachers for two or three students, redundancies make sense, though it would place a burden on rural children who would then have to commute longer distances to consolidated schools.

Currently the average class size for language classes is 26 students. If anything, teachers argue, language classes ought to have a lower student-to-teacher ratio, to give students more opportunities to communicate and interact.

However, Mihailova maintained that the availability of money is not the issue.

“The Government could easily raise the educational budget from 4.2 per cent to five per cent of GDP,” she said. The European Union can help as well. She had read how they were assisting disadvantaged, underprivileged residents by providing $3 million for the construction of new housing. Do teachers not fall in that category? Moreover big businesses could help out since the economy is booming, and they are forever complaining about a skills shortage, set to only worsen.

Educators say it ultimately comes down to the values and ideas that a society holds dear. Koutina explained how teachers in Bulgaria have traditionally been held in high regard. “Even during Ottoman hegemony, the three most prominent people in every village were the mayor, the priest and the teacher,” she said, adding that it was the latter two who kept Bulgarian literature, writing and language alive during that period.

Yankov even remembers from his youth when teachers were highly revered. During communism? “No, before that” (he said he was 82). He elaborated further, saying that teachers have played significant roles in cultural and historical developments. “All the revolutionaries – Botev, Levski – began their careers as teachers.” Yankov has also witnessed the declining status of teachers under communism, when they became unwitting vehicles for ideological indoctrination and propaganda, then plunge after the changes. “Hopefully, this strike will mark the beginning of a comeback,” he said.