ED

H U5 Master Master I C4 Bachelor G A3 H T2 E I1 R O

N

Legend

S EE D

Professional C U

O CEducation N A

D TA IR O

C Y NO E

M DU

P CU AL T Basic

S I EducationO O

NRY

Kindergarden

age

PhD

years

Specialist

Education

Secondary Art Schools

Language Schools

Bachelor

13

18

19

Professional16

17

9

10

11

12

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

12

13

14

15

grade

Basic Educaion

Secondary Education

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Pre-School Education

Primary Education

10

11

Pre-school educationSchool education – basic and

secondary- Two terms- The school year starts on 15 September

and ends in May, June or July (depends on the grade)

Higher education – specialist, bachelor, master

Children from 3 to 6/7 years oldNon-compulsory 1 year preparatory education

Compulsory Two stages:

- Primary education: 1-4 grade (diploma for completed primary education)

- Lower Secondary education: 5-8 grade

- (diploma for completed basic education) State, municipal or private schools Possible professional qualification

after 6-th, 7-th or 8-th grade

3, 4 or 5 years of studying Admission after 7-th or 8-th grade Non-compulsory Types:

- General (3 or 4 years)- Profiled (4 or 5 years, entry exams):

sports, languages, economics, mathematics, IT, arts

- Vocational (4 or 5 years): technical or other

Special education: for children with special needs

State schools onlyEntirely supported by the State

Graduation exams- Bulgarian language and literature- Additional exam on subject from the

general or profiled curriculumStudents with marks “very good”

(5) or higher are released from graduation exam

Colleges – specialist (3 years) Universities and Higher education

schools – bachelor (4 years), master (5 years, or 4+1 or 2)

PhD – master + 3 years; doctoral thesis Entry exams: different type and number

(depends on the HEI, rarely tests) ECTS – though supported by the law, it

is not introduced yet