President Rumen Radev promulgates the Law on preschool and school education. Changes to the Preschool and School Education Act were adopted on August 7, and some political parties called on the head of state to veto the amendments. Deyan Kolev, chairman of the Center for Inter-Ethnic Dialogue and Tolerance "Amalipe", spoke to FAKTI on the topic.
- Mr. Kolev, the parliament has strongly adopted in the first and second reading the amendments to the Law on Preschool and School Education (ZPUO), which prohibit propaganda, popularization and incitement, in any way - directly or indirectly, of ideas or views related to non-traditional sexual orientation or determining gender identity other than biological. What was achieved by this?
- After the changes in the ZPAO were promulgated, we expect several negative consequences. Teachers and principals will begin to be restricted, and will be restricted under threat of sanctions, from teaching topics related to sexual orientation and sex/family relationships. These topics have always been of great interest to young people and received a partial response at school. Now, this answer will be even more partial, as many teachers will worry that whatever they say will be against the Law.
I do not rule out that teachers answer similar student questions: “I cannot comment, read what is written in the Bible”.
Naturally, this answer will not satisfy students, and they will look for information on the Internet, on the street, in youth companies. I also expect that teachers will begin to refrain from teaching subjects that are important to civics education – tolerance, stereotypes, prejudices, the fight against discrimination. They are still not sufficiently considered and discussed in school. The changes in the ZPAO will create an additional, and at the same time quite serious, barrier. Thus, our education will continue not to educate active citizens, which is a very serious weakness.
I leave aside how unfair this is to students and teachers who don't fit the “mold” of traditional understandings… They are doomed not to see themselves in any form in the learning content.
In addition, I expect that in its short time of existence, the 50th SC will adopt or at least start discussing even more restrictive texts. Proposals have already been submitted by the former group of “Velichie”, from ITN, and probably from others too,
which propose serious sanctions and even revocation of teaching license.
The unfolding election campaign and pandering to more conservative voters could lead to legislation similar to the anti-Jewish laws of the 1930s and early 1940s.
It is significant that there is no real public debate on these important legal changes!
Deputies rush to accept them without asking citizens and participants in the educational process – principals, teachers, students. I am glad that despite the holiday season with positions that condemn the adopted changes, both employers' unions in the school education system, the national student parliament, numerous non-governmental organizations came out. Center “Amalipe” also reacted immediately, calling on the president to veto, and the people's representatives – not to accept new restrictive texts. It is important that all of us who work with schools, teachers, parents and students work together to protect the democratic foundations of our education.
- We heard that this has nothing to do with tolerance for differences. What are the different ones?
- Of course there is a lot in common – refers to the representation in school of groups that society accepts as different. Today, the legislation is against the presentation of views and ideas (for me, the very fact that at the beginning of the 21st century in Bulgaria laws are passed against “views and ideas”) regarding family, gender and family roles is nightmarish. Tomorrow it will be views and ideas about the role of traditional minorities, migrants, Jews, Muslims, etc. Pandora's box opens and no one knows what monsters will come out of it.
- The deputies also explained - whoever has a different sexual orientation has all the tolerance of society. And is it really so?
- Of course not - attitudes towards people with different sexual orientation are very negative. By banning their performance in school, legislators will further reinforce this negativity.
- The unifying link is the children, who must be left to develop according to God's laws. And that's what we heard from an MP. Who determines this?
- Hardly anyone can give a reasonable answer to this question. Surely the youth will not be satisfied with such lack of answers and will look for them outside of school. And this will further undermine the authority of the school.
- The EU launched the Istanbul Convention, we categorically deny it because it was a threat. What is happening in the EU and what is happening here?
- The 2023 Eurobarometer survey “Discrimination in the EU” shows a division of attitudes between Bulgaria and Romania - on the one hand, and the other European countries. It is significant that in the rest of the countries the majority of citizens want to include topics such as racism, the Holocaust, Roma history and culture, different gender roles and sexual orientation in the curriculum.
In this regard, Bulgaria and Romania are much more conservative compared to other European countries.
This difference is deepening, as shown by a comparison in the Eurobarometer survey in 2019 and 2023. We emerge as the two countries with the largest differences in values from the rest of the Europeans.
Of course, there is a conservative trend across Europe. The Istanbul Convention was met with skepticism in other countries as well, but hysteria developed above all in Bulgaria and Romania.
- How is Bulgaria positioned in this “overplay” with liberal values?
- As I pointed out above, an alarming trend, clearly presented by the Eurobarometer surveys in 2023 and 2019 "Discrimination in the EU", is the strong divergence in values regarding educational content between Bulgaria and Romania and the rest of the EU countries. Many questions show the readiness of European citizens to accept/not to accept that topics such as racism, the Holocaust, Roma history and culture, gender, etc., are addressed in the curricula. On all these issues, Bulgaria and Romania emerge as the “most conservative” and most resistant to introducing such lessons. For example, 85% of EU citizens agree that the history of the Holocaust and anti-Semitism should be studied in school, while in Bulgaria this percentage is 61, and in Romania – only 52 percent. On average for the EU, 73% of citizens agree that children should have lessons about Roma culture and history in school, while in Bulgaria this idea is shared by only 48% (45% are against), and in Romania – 51% accept the possibility. In fact, we are the most negative in the entire European Union, although we have an improvement of 4%, while the deterioration of our neighbors is as much as 8%. The difference is particularly obvious in relation to the possibility of having lessons about sexual orientation in school. On average for the EU, 71% agree that students should talk and learn about this at school. In Bulgaria, 34% of citizens in 2023 expressed agreement against 68% disagreement. Compared to 2019, the share of those who agreed decreased by 4%, and those who disagreed increased by 8%.
It is certain that the changes in the ZPUO from 07.08.2024 will further increase the differences in the attitudes of Bulgarian parents and parents from other EU countries. This in itself is a worrying trend that we should not be supporting, as the EU is not only a common market and a net donor, but also a shared space of values.