Magdalena Abadzhieva's eldest child headed back to the classroom in Bulgaria in early September for what her mother hoped would be for good.
Since early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, children in Bulgaria and elsewhere shifted to online studies amid restrictions worldwide to slow the spread of the deadly virus.
But after a few weeks in class, Abadzhieva's daughter was home again. Now in eighth grade, her daughter has spent much of sixth, seventh, and now eighth grade with studies online at home, and Magdalena Abadzhieva is confused as well as angry.
Vaccinated, her daughter can go to a restaurant, movie theater, or shopping mall, pretty much anywhere but not her school in the capital, Sofia.
"This is now a third [school] year online and it's unbearable. Things just can't go on like this anymore," fumed Abadzhieva.
"My friends have children who are now in 12th grade. They spent only two years in the classroom with their classmates. In 10th, 11th, and now 12th grade they've been out of school," she lamented in a recent interview with RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service.
The mother of two notes that it is still unclear when her daughter will be able to return to class. In Bulgaria, classrooms are open for children up to fourth grade who test negative for COVID-19. But for many students from fifth through 12th grade, schools are largely off-limits right now.
The reason? Stockpiles of COVID-19 tests are low, insufficient to cover all students at state-run schools.
That's the claim of Nikolay Denkov, the country's education minister. But Stoycho Katsarov, Bulgaria's health minister, says that's not true, asserting his ministry has ordered enough tests.
A High Price To Pay
While the ministers feud, children remain out of school, adding to Bulgaria's COVID-19 woes. The Southeast European country of nearly 7 million people has the lowest vaccination rate and one of the highest COVID-19 death rates per capita in the world. Less than 30 percent of the adult population has taken at least one shot against the virus, mid-November statistics indicated. In September, as the pandemic spiked in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria hit record numbers of daily coronavirus deaths.
For kids in Bulgaria and elsewhere, the pandemic has exacted a terrible toll. "The general consensus remains that the decision to close schools to control the COVID-19 pandemic should be used as a last resort. The negative physical, mental, and educational impacts of proactive school closures on children, as well as the economic impact on society more broadly, would likely outweigh the benefits," is the way the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, an EU agency, has put it.
That's surely a sentiment Magdalena Abadzhieva and other parents in Bulgaria could agree with. "Once the number of patients [with COVID-19] begins to rise, children are the easiest target to be removed, hidden in order to calm society," Abadzhieva offered, before addressing the plight of her own daughter.
"My daughter is having a hard time. She was in music school studying a string instrument remotely. She lost all desire to play," explained Abadzhieva, adding that her daughter now wears glasses, a result, her mother believes, of all the time spent in front of a computer screen.
Her daughter is now enrolled at a school specializing in the study of foreign languages, but is struggling with depression, having barely met her new classmates, Abadzhieva says.
"When my daughter found out that school would be closing this year as well, she cried for four hours. I was unable to calm her down. And she wasn't alone. Does anyone think about what they are going through? Does anyone speak to them?" Abadzhieva asked.
Ralitsa Vachkova is the mother of three children: a daughter in kindergarten and two sons in sixth and ninth grade in Sofia. She says distance learning is difficult for both the boys. Her eldest son has been online since seventh grade, when he had to prepare to apply to high school. He is now enrolled at a school specializing in languages.
"In the beginning, this [online learning] was something new, somewhat interesting. That is no longer the case. He's really lost his motivation to study," Vachkova explained.
Failing At Testing
Like elsewhere, schools and universities in Bulgaria suspended in-person learning after the pandemic began in March 2020, with many not returning that academic year. For most of 2021, students in Bulgaria above fourth grade did most of their learning online.
The current 2021-22 academic year began with in-person lessons. But by mid-October, schools shut down again in areas of Bulgaria where COVID-19 infection rates spiked, returning many children and teenagers back to online learning, much to the consternation of their parents.
According to regulations in place in Bulgaria, schools must shut down classroom learning in areas where COVID-19 infections rise above 500 per 100,000 over a two-week timeline. If those rates are a bit lower, between 250 and 500 per 100,000, then schools in those areas must switch to half of the students learning online and half in classrooms. If mortality rates are less than 250 per 100,000, then children can return full-time to classrooms.
However, as rates began skyrocketing shortly after the start of the school year, the authorities scrambled to avoid wide-scale online learning. In November, the authorities began testing children in grades one through four twice a week to keep them in class.
However, older students were shut out, as the government said there weren't enough COVID-19 tests to go around.
Katsarov, the health minister, said at a briefing on November 26 that the Education Ministry had so far been provided with 1 million tests and that more would be forthcoming.
A day later, Denkov, the education minister, told Bulgarian media that the ministry had received 168,000 of the promised 1 million tests. He added that an unspecified number of tests were in a warehouse and would reach schools by December 10.
According to Denkov, to test all students from grades one through 12, Bulgaria would need more than 1.2 million antigen tests a week.
In response to a query from RFE/RL, the Health Ministry said 1,358,300 tests had been delivered to the Education Ministry by November 29 and that a further 650,000 tests would be delivered on November 30.
The ministry said there were public procurements for another 2.4 million tests, which would be delivered within a week of contracts being signed with test makers. That hadn't happened as of December 1.
As of last week, older students with COVID-19 vaccination certificates can also return to class, but only if at least half of the children in class meet this criterion. According to data from the Education Ministry, 5 percent of students of high-school age have contracted COVID-19. It said its data showed 7 percent of students were vaccinated.
Abadzhieva said in her daughter's eighth-grade class, half of the children have vaccination documents, but still have not returned to school for classes.
According to the Education Ministry, more than 3,000 children between the fifth and 12th grade attended school in Sofia on November 29. All paid for their tests and almost all attend private schools, a fraction of the number of students in the capital.
On December 2, Katsarov vowed to get all students in Bulgaria back in class next week, but Denkov advised caution amid the shortfall of COVID-19 antigen tests.
Abadzhieva faults the government for not taking action sooner. "A lot of valuable time was lost and there was no courage and firmness on the part of the government. And they always find an excuse -- the parents would not agree, there were many against the tests," she said.
Vachkova also accuses the government of dragging its feet.
"If we declare that our priority is for children to go to school in a safe environment, providing a safe environment means that they will be tested. That's it," she said. "This is something the Health Ministry should have done last year."
