ORGANIZING HIGH-SCHOOL TUITION IN HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION

1. ORGANIZING HIGH-SCHOOL TUITION IN HISTORY AND CIVILIZATION HRISTINA MARKOVA

2. History and Civilization in High Schools The tuition in history and civilization is organized according to the National Educational Requirements (NER) (Standards) for General Education approved by virtue of the Curriculum Content Ordinance of 2000 and the Public Education Act. The approved history and civilization curricula for the 1st-8th grades are designed for compulsory tuition, while those for the 9th-12th grades are designed for compulsory and specialized tuition. The compulsory tuition in history and civilization provides for completing the general education minimum within 204 classes for 5th-8th-year students, and 216 classes for 9th-11th-year students. The tuition in history and civilization in the 12th grade takes place only in the form of specialized instruction.

3. Goals and objectives of the tuition in history and civilization To sum up the goals and objectives set by the NER, at the end of the tuition in history and civilization students should: • Have mastered a certain amount of historical information – facts and concepts on the basis of which they should be able to evaluate and analyze different historical events, issues and periods of the development of mankind; • Be able to characterize events, personalities and processes; • Be able to use historical maps, tables, charts, etc.; • Be able to process historical information from different sources; • Be able to express in writing their own position on a certain historical issue.

5. Content of the tuition in history and civilization Compulsory Tuition In the 5th grade, students have their first integral course of homeland history – from the earliest appearance of man in the lands of present-day Bulgaria until the end of the 17th century. The natural centre of the curriculum content is the period 7th-17th centuries, which represents a relative historical whole and covers the history of the Bulgarians in the Pre-industrial period.

6. Compulsory Tuition In the 6th grade, the tuition in history is a natural continuation of the 5th-grade curriculum. It complements the systematic course in Bulgarian history, covering the period between the beginning of the 18th century and the end of the 20th century.

7. Compulsory Tuition In the 7th grade, students study Prehistory and Antiquity. Their attention is directed to the historical development of the Mediterranean world in the period between the 4th millennium B.C. and the 5th century A.D. Acquiring knowledge about the history of the Ancient East, Ancient Hellas and Rome, students trace the beginning and development of the first states in the history of mankind and their cultural achievements.

8. Compulsory Tuition The 8th-grade curriculum content traces the period of the Middle Ages, covering the 4th-5th centuries. It is thematically structured from the point of view of the European idea of the world. The territorial range includes the geographic parameters of Europe, as well as other parts of the world with which the European world was in contact in the process of searching for new routes and new worlds. Emphasis is laid on the dynamics of those cultural, political and economic processes which underlay the formation of the European civilization’s face.

9. Compulsory Tuition The tuition in history and civilization in the 9th grade covers the period between the end of the 15th century and 1918. The basic points of emphasis are the establishment of modern states and institutions and the formation of ideas and political models during the New History. A significant amount of attention is directed to the development of social relations, cultural processes and the changes in everyday life.

10. Compulsory tuition The tuition in history and civilization in the 10th grade covers the period between 1918 and the 90s of the 20th century. Emphasis is laid on the processes of globalization and the universal tendencies on the political and ideological level, as well as in the spheres of engineering and technology, culture, everyday life, etc. It is especially important that students should not only to deepen their knowledge but also improve their skills to practically apply that knowledge.

11. Compulsory tuition The tuition in history and civilization in the 11th grade covers the issues of Bulgarian history from Antiquity until modern times. Special emphasis is laid on the political development during the different periods, the establishment of institutions, the social processes, the cultural development and the changes in everyday life.

12. Specialized instruction The curriculum content in the 12th grade concentrates upon the most important cultural and political phenomena around contemporary Bulgarians – the national state and the process of European integration, together with their specific historical development in the Balkans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

13. The specialized instruction is carried out from the 9th to the 12th form according to the schools’ curricula and takes place in the compulsory and elective compulsory classes as an entity. According to the High-School Curriculum Content Arrangement Ordinance of 2001, it is implemented as follows:9th grade – no less than108 classes10th grade – no less than108 classes11th grade – no less than108 classes12th grade – no less than 93 classes

14. History and Civilization and Civil Education Civil education is not a separate subject in the compulsory education for 1st-12th-year students. It is essential that students should realize the priorities in the development of contemporary Bulgaria in the context of its European integration, as well as the values underlying the development of modern Europe: importance of human rights, of ethnic and cultural identity, religious tolerance and respect for the choices of others.

15. THANK YOU! 