The education ministry does not back fixed terms for school principals, officials said at a meeting of parliament's education and science committee. Krasimira Stoyanova, head of the ministry's legal department, gave the ministry's view on a bill put forward by MP Elisaveta Belobradova and a group of Democratic Bulgaria lawmakers.

"We don't support fixed terms. It could break the stability and continuity of how schools are run," Stoyanova told the committee.

Under the bill, principals would serve four-year terms, with a limit of two terms for the same person. The draft also spells out how selection panels for principal posts should be made up.

The ministry is also unsure about a plan to let each town decide on its own whether to offer extra early childhood education and care services. "We have doubts about this proposal. The bill doesn't say what this work would actually involve," Stoyanova said. She added that it's unclear how these services would connect to preschool and school education, and that there are no common rules to cover them.

The bill's backers also want standalone nurseries, which currently fall outside the system, brought under the law on preschool and school education. Stoyanova said the ministry doesn't see clear, full reasons for this, or what problem it would fix, and it recommends the proposal be spelled out in far more detail.

The ministry does back the idea, in principle, of preschool and school education working hand in hand with health care and social services. But it says this should be set out not only in the law on preschool and school education, but in other relevant laws too.

The bill's backers also want media literacy, critical thinking, and training in modern technology and artificial intelligence added to the goals of preschool and school education. The draft also lays out a strategy for using digital tools and AI in schools, so children get quality education earlier.

The bill would make early childhood development a top national priority. It would also let town councils set a fee for standalone nurseries and kindergartens for the period from June 1 to September 14.

The draft would also create a formal role for education mediators, along with changes to what schools teach and how they grade it.

MPs now have the ministry's opinion in hand.