What are the possible solutions for educational mediators after 01.07.2023?

The National Programme for Support of Educational Mediators and Social Workers ends on 30.06.2023. At this moment, the Ministry of Education does not announce a decision on how the nearly 940 mediators/social workers in schools will continue their work. The ministry outlines possible solutions without committing to any of them. What does the MES actually propose and how feasible is it?

During a meeting initiated by Center Amalipe and held at the Ministry of Education on 07.04. the Ministry of Education pointed out the following possible solutions:

• The mediators should be recruited under the new project “Success to you”, which continues “Support for success”: this possibility was also presented by the Head of the new project Greta Gancheva at an online meeting with nearly 1700 school principals. Realistically, this opportunity does not exist. Already at the approval of the Education Programme, as well as of the Operation financing “Success for you”, the European Commission was adamant that the Bulgarian Government and the National Budget should make a real commitment to pay the mediators. For this reason, the new European project will finance only up to 4h per day of the mediator’s salary up to 500BGN. This means that educational mediators/social workers must be assigned to schools with other resources, and subsequently Success for You will reinburse (“cash in”) up to 500lv. of their salary.

Don’t expect the new project to cover the full salaries of the mediators! Don’t expect it to employ mediators on a 4 hour contract either: the project will reimburse up to 4h, but only if it is at least half of the working day!

• Schools can employ mediators with the funds they have for working with vulnerable groups: the Ministry of Education insists that these funds are sufficient, as it is 34 000 000 BGN. The statement about the availability of such funds is in itself true, but it does not follow from it that all the mediators currently working under the National Programme can be recruited. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the Funding Regulation allows these funds to be used for four types of expenditure: remuneration for those involved in the outreach teams; additional Bulgarian language classes; the employment of educational mediators/teacher’s assistants; and for other teaching staff involved in ensuring equal access to school (Art. 52a(3)). At present, in the majority of schools, these funds are used precisely for the payment of teachers so that schools do not merge classes and conduct quality teaching. It would be a grave mistake to contrast the need to hire mediators with the need to hire more teachers.

Secondly, the amount of funding for work with vulnerable groups (under Article 52a of the Funding Ordinance) is allocated on the basis of the number of pupils and the degree of vulnerability (what percentage of parents are without secondary education and without primary education). As a result, most of these funds are received by segregated schools in the district towns: those that have more than 500 and even more than 1,000 pupils and whose parents are without education. Small schools, in villages or smaller towns, and ethnically mixed schools receive a low amount of funding to work with vulnerable groups: due to the small number of children or the low percentage of parents without education.

Assuming that to employ one mediator on minimum wage, the school needs 13,000BGN, the large number of schools/kindergartens could not employ even one mediator with these funds. Please find attached information on the number of schools and nurseries receiving funds for work with vulnerable groups and the amount of these funds:

It shows that 2/3 of kindergartens and 40% of comprehensive schools and vocational schools receiving Article 52a funds could not even employ one mediator with all the funds they receive. About 1/3 of schools and only 1/5 of kindergartens could appoint one mediator if they used more than half of the funds for work with vulnerable groups. Only 1/3 of schools and 10% of nurseries could appoint a mediator or mediators as they receive more than 26,000 BGN under Article 52a.

The problem would be particularly serious in schools and kindergartens that do not receive funds for work with vulnerable groups. These are the ones in which the low educated parents do not exceed 20%. In many cases, these are ethnically mixed schools that make efforts to integrate Roma pupils without allowing the outflow of children from the majority. Educational mediators are also needed in these schools, but if the idea of the Ministry of Education and Science to appoint them only with Article 52a funds is implemented, they will have to be cut.

The current National Programme finances a larger number of mediators, according to the nature of the school (whether it is a centre or not) and the number of pupils in it. Schools without concentrations of vulnerable groups are also funded. If the program is not extended, and reliance is placed on Section 52a funds, at least half of the mediators (possibly more) will be laid off.

• The mediators working in kindergartens under the Project “Active Inclusion…” will be assigned to another project from 01.07.2023, thus ensuring their employment: the above statement is true only in its first part. Indeed, the educational mediators in kindergartens who were recruited under the Active Inclusion… project (their number is small and barely exceeds 70) will be recruited under the Equal Access in Times of Crisis project ( also known as React.eu). But this employment will only be for half a year as the project ends at the end of 2023. Thus, from 01.01.2024 they will also face the problems described above and, with an even greater degree of probability, the majority of them will be unemployed.
• Schools have sufficient funds as they have large transitional balances. For the past year, they amounted to BGN 10 000 000. This statement is also only partially true. Not all schools have a transitional surplus: most of it is generated by large schools, many of which have no concentration of vulnerable groups. The existence of a transitional surplus is not prohibited; in many cases it is a necessary condition for schools to function normally in the face of declining pupil numbers during the school year Many of the schools where educational mediators work have little or no transitional surplus. So the mediators currently working under the National Programme cannot be expected to be covered by the transitional surplus.

It is undeniable that the way of allocating funds for work with vulnerable groups should be changed so that the differences in funding received between individual schools and kindergartens are not so great. Consideration could be given to minimum and maximum funding for Article 52a resources in a particular school or kindergarten. Consideration could also be given to setting a minimum percentage of funds to be spent on the appointment of mediators, teaching assistants, etc. At this time, the Funding Ordinance does not offer such solutions and the expectation that schools/kindergartens will be able to absorb educational mediators through Vulnerable Groups funds is unrealistic.

It is equally uncontroversial that an important position such as that of educational mediators should be funded in a sustainable way, not on a project basis or through national programmes that have a one year duration. Of course, finding such a sustainable way requires political will and a longer-term vision for school development.

At present, the only realistic solution for continued employment is to extend the National Programme for another year. The Ministry of Education still has time to implement this approach.