By Olga Ninova- Trayanova | Project Leader
Choosing JUMP Math requires more than giving teachers freedom – it requires resources and sustained support from school leadership. Without that, teachers are left without the means to replace the Ministry-approved and state-funded mathematics textbooks currently in use.
Many schools have just completed their four-year innovative program cycles and are now preparing new applications for the next innovation period starting in the 2026–27 school year. Until then, they face significant challenges in allocating resources from their existing school budgets, especially smaller schools with limited funding.
The lack of real autonomy for school, despite being staffed by qualified pedagogical specialists, means that teachers and leaders cannot make independent decisions about educational resources and teaching methods. The absence of both financial and structural support for such autonomy leads to growing formalism within the educational system.
This issue directly affects how mathematics is taught: too often in a dry, abstract way, accessible only to a small number of students. What is needed are approaches grounded in real-life contexts, fostering reasoning, problem-solving, and deeper thinking skills.
Our colleague Mariyana Georgieva, educational expert and member of the Institute for Progressive Education, explores these issues in her article “Memory Is Short, but Approaches Are Lasting: The Need for Quality Standards in Preschool and School Education.”
Memory is short, but approaches are lasting.
In it, she argues for a comprehensive quality standard encompassing all key educational factors like curricula, content, teaching methods, professional development, and learning resources, everything that contributes to meaningful, high-quality education and lasting results.
By Olga Ninova- Trayanova | Project Leader
By Olga Ninova- Trayanova | Project Leader
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