ANALYSIS-Poor education undermines Bulgaria prospects
Trade the News
Monday September 20, 2010 02:06:12 PM GMT
* Poorest EU member also has lowest labour productivity
* Govt has not yet carried out promised education reforms
* Importing skilled labour may cancel out tax, cost benefits
By Irina Ivanova
SOFIA, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Bulgaria needs to overhaul its outdated education system to solve a chronic shortage of skilled labour, which is deterring foreign investors and undermining efforts to help the ailing economy.
The European Union's poorest member also has its lowest labour productivity and some foreign companies are fretting about the cost of importing workers with skills to do the job -- which could outweigh the benefits of low taxes and labour costs.
The centre-right government came to power with a promise to make education one of its top priorities but more than a year later little, if anything, has actually been done and the focus of debate is firmly on spending cuts.
"If the government's efforts are not focused on the sectors of education, information technologies and innovation ... we stand no chance of catching up with the countries from central Europe in the next 30 years," said Ruslan Stefanov of think-tank Centre for the Study of Democracy.
Sofia spends around 4 percent of gross domestic product on education, some 18 percent below the EU average. The recession has choked off funding, most drastically for university research and development where subsidies have fallen 70 percent so far in 2010 from a year earlier.
Bulgarian PISA test scores, a global benchmark for student assessment, have declined considerably. Not only does the Balkan country lag well behind more developed countries, its results are also among the lowest of its neighbours.
Businesses complain about the quality of education provided by schools and universities, saying curricula are outdated and leave graduates unprepared for the needs of employers.
"There are people studying automatics and robotics ... who have never been shown what a robot looks like," said Maria Temelkova from the Bulgarian arm of recruiting firm Manpower.
It is also hard to find staff with foreign language skills required for outsourcing centres which have mushroomed recently. Teaching is focused on theory so that even university graduates who read languages are not fluent speakers, Temelkova said.
TRAINED HANDS NEEDED
Bulgaria urgently needs foreign investment to lift its recession-hit economy, which contracted 5 percent in 2009.
The inadequately educated work force is the fifth most problematic factor for doing business, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), a much higher ranking than neighbouring Romania and Serbia, which face many of the same economic problems. Corruption, access to financing, extensive red tape and the lack of infrastructure are other big problems.
"To build a skilled labour force Bulgaria needs to improve the quality of the education system, especially the abilities of students leaving the secondary school system," said Harry Patrinos, lead education economist at the World Bank.
Young people have shunned blue-collar jobs since the fall of communism 20 years ago and students flock to subjects like business administration, economics, and social sciences -- seen as a prerequisite for top managers and hence prosperity.
That leaves the country short of just the type of worker it needs to benefit from its low costs. In 2009 there were more than 16,000 university graduates in economics and business administration, compared with 6,365 in technical sciences.
"During the communist years it was clear there was nothing wrong in being a lathe turner," said Borislav Stefanov, head of the state investment agency. "(Now) everybody wants to be a boss."
Competition between universities, the key driver for better quality, has disappeared because institutions chase larger state subsidies calculated only from the number of students.
Education Minister Sergei Ignatov said the outdated university system needs a "sweeping" overhaul.
The education ministry plans to launch a rating system which will serve as the basis for distributing funds. The project, initiated by the previous cabinet, is expected to be finished in October.
Analysts say more cash will not help unless it is handed out according to the quality of training universities provide for which stringent assessment mechanisms are needed.
"We are at a crucial crossroads where we have to decide what we need -- education or quality education," says Professor Ivan Ilchev, Dean of Sofia University.
"The countries which have managed to prosper are ... without exception countries which have prioritised education." (Editing by Charles Dick)
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