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On the eve of the new school year, it is time to look back and take stock of the results of the last one. In this article, we focus on the grades from the National External Evaluation, which is mandatory for all seventh graders and includes exams in Bulgarian language and literature and mathematics.

In less than a month, the new school year begins, and a few weeks after that the next parliamentary elections are coming up - all this will invariably raise questions about the quality of our education system and what it provides to children and society. Unfortunately, the facts at the moment do not speak well for the system, and actions for real change are not noticeable.

In recent months, the focus of the economic debate has been price growth, and rightly so – Bulgaria has not seen increases in the consumer price index of more than 10% on an annual basis for decades. This raises the question of whether the dynamics of wages and household incomes are outpacing the growth of prices, or on the contrary – we are witnessing real impoverishment. This week's second-quarter 2022 wage data allows such a comparison to be made, and the results are a cause for concern as inflation outpaces wage growth in nearly all economic activities.

In which municipalities are the lowest and highest local taxes?

Although the Covid-19 pandemic and measures to support the health system are now far from the center of the debate, its problems are far from solved. Among the important obstacles to the good functioning of the system is its staffing, which has been deteriorating in recent years.

At a stage of relative lull in the spread of Covid-19, we take stock of the past two years of active financial support to deal with the impact of the pandemic and restrictive measures on business. This text aims to examine the distribution of this targeted funding in the different regions of the country, by industry and according to the size of the recipient companies.

The external evaluations that already take place at four stages of schooling – after fourth, seventh, tenth and twelfth class – are certainly far from a complete and accurate diagnosis of quality and its problems. However, they do provide a simple and clear assessment of at least one aspect of student achievement.