PERIOD OF STUDY AT THE FIRST LANGUAGE SCHOOL - 5  YEARS

ADMISSION TO SCHOOL :  Competitive examinations in Bulgarian and Bulgarian literature and Mathematics after-7th-grade form. It is based on a quota principle for each department: 50 % boys and 50 % girls. Examination marks are formed as follows: the entrance exams marks are doubled and added to the grades in Bulgarian from the certificate from the Primary school.

DEPARTMENTS :
ENGLISH -total number of students - 88
GERMAN - total number of students - 66

Specific Features of the Curriculum · General education following the National Curriculum
·Specialised courses:
   - First foreign language
       - a compulsory minimum of 1774  periods, distributed as follows:

- option choices
- set option choices in 10th class - 124 periods
- free option choices - a total of 206 periods, distributed as follows:

The First Language School offers a maximum of 1980 periods of First foreign language study.
  - Second foreign language - option choices (English, German, French, or Spanish); a compulsory minimum of 646 periods (8th-11th class)
The First Language School provides to its  students the opportunity  to finish their secondary education having learned equally well two foreign languages at a First-foreign-language level.

The Second Level German Language Diploma Exam - What is it?
Our students have been admitted to the Second Level German Language Diploma, Exam held by the Ministers of Culture of Germany, after a request made by the Municipality of Varna to the Bulgarian Ministry of Science and Education. The students from the first two specialized classes (1995/96 and 1996/97 school years) took the exam at the test centre in Bourgas (Goethe High School) and they all passed it successfully except one student. In these specialized classes German is taught at least eight academic hours a week. Students prepare to meet the Bulgarian Education requirements besides those of the Second Level German Language Diploma. This means literature and culture studied in depth though intensive analyses of texts, accompanied by literary analyses of three entire works of fiction. Discussion and speculation on the problems concerning predetermined and prejudiced views constitute the main principle. Developing the skill to see and discuss issues from the Bulgarian point of view is also part of this principle. The core part of the lessons in these classes is the responsibility of only one teacher. During the first two years of successfully passed exams these were Mr. Manfred Schroeder and Mrs. Marie-Luise Grot, delegated teachers from Germany. This school year Mr. Karlheinz Doer is the teacher and coordinator for north-eastern Bulgaria. As a rule Bulgarian teachers work together with their German colleagues in this project. The Second Level German Language Diploma is a certificate recognizing mastery of the German language necessary for higher and university studies in Germany. Students possessing this certificate have the advantage of not taking the language courses compulsory for the other foreign students at German universities. Through sitting the Second Level German Language Diploma Exam (which is currently taken by more than 8,000 students annually from all over the world) our students’ achievements acquire world wide recognition.

Darina Popstefanowa