Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov (BTA photo)
SOFIA, Bulgaria – In the past six years, over 50 000 children have been brought back and retained in the education system so that they can continue their education, said here on Tuesday at a briefing at the Council of Ministers Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov.
He was speaking after a meeting of the coordination unit under the mechanism for joint work between institutions on school on drop-out prevention and inclusion in the education system of pupils of compulsory school age.
"For several years we have been using the so-called outreach mechanism, which aims to bring back children who have dropped out of the school system and keep them there," Denkov said.
The Prime Minister said that during the coordination unit's meeting, Education and Science Minister Galin Tzokov presented to the new regional governors and representatives of responsible institutions the government's upcoming actions to make this mechanism for bringing dropouts back to class work.
The Prime Minister pointed out that coordination between several ministries and other institutions was needed to tackle the problem.
The meeting discussed a timetable for specially formed teams to start visiting homes and talking to parents to get children into classrooms after the first day of the new school year.
Possible changes to the decree regulating the operation of these outreach mechanisms were also discussed so that some deadlines could be refined, Denkov said.
In addition to Prime Minister Denkov, the meeting of the unit was attended by representatives of the ministries of education and science, labour and social policy, interior, health, regional development and public works, and finance, as well as the State Agency for Child Protection, the Social Assistance Agency, the National Association of Municipalities in Bulgaria, and regional governors. (BTA)
