Bulgaria: A Deceased Girl continued to receive Grades in a Plovdiv School months after her Death

Months after the death of a fifth-grader, a Plovdiv school did not reflect her absences from classes. What's more - the girl even received grades from "exams". The Plovdiv newspaper "Maritsa" wrote about the scandalous case. The school is "Nayden Gerov".

Last school year, "Veska" (not the real name of the child) was supposed to be in the fifth grade at the school in Stolipinovo district. However, the girl did not show up on the first day of school, nor on the following days. She was gone for weeks, months at a time, but the class grade book didn't show that at all. The child disappeared during the summer vacation, and during the search, the police found that she had drowned in the Maritsa river. But for months, the girl did not receive written absences (if five cases of absence are unexcused, social services stop state benefits). False grades appear against her name in the class grade book. The school received funding from the state for the support of the student.

It is not known whether "Nayden Gerov" tried to contact the family to find out where their student was. The Inter-institutional mechanism for the inclusion and retention in the educational system of children and students of compulsory school age, whose main task is the return of children to school, has not been implemented.

In November, the school found out by chance, from neighbors, that the girl had died. On November 11, they contacted the Sixth District Police Department to confirm the information. On the 22nd, the police responded that the girl had been reported missing on July 26, 2022. Only then was the fifth-grader withdrawn from the school system. To cover up the violations, the grades of the girl who drowned on July 25 were erased.

According to "Maritsa" information, this is not the only case with a fictitious student at "Naiden Gerov" school. From there, they asked the Ministry of Education and Science, but the ministry refused them information with the argument that it contains personal data and that access to the data under the Mechanism is limited. However, the Ministry of Education and Culture ordered the Regional Department of Education in Plovdiv to carry out an inspection and the department found that violations had been committed. The school director Diana Gavazova was given mandatory instructions and she was asked for explanations.

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