Sofia, June 17, 2020
On June 17th the National Network for Children NNC presented online the now traditional Government’s Report Card concerning the child-related policies in different fields. For better visualization of the needs of the adolescents the Report Card has a few attached videos on important subjects to be acted upon, created by Genka Shikerova – battling poverty, addiction prevention, the need for health education, etc. The video on the need for health and sexuality education is with the participation of some of “our” people – Dr. Rada Stamenkova, Exec. Director of BFPA, and Rado Vasilev – peer educator from 1st High School.
Here are some more details from the ninth consecutive edition of the annual report “Report Card 2020 – What is the average government score in the field of childcare? “
The Report Card is an annual report prepared by NNC. It reviews the basic policies aimed at the wellbeing of the children. This year it was prepared by 36 experts from CSOs who work with children and families all year round. In the preparation of the Report Card also take part more than 400 children, adolescents, parents and professionals via the questionnaire “Report Card – how the children, parents, and professionals evaluate the government” as well as interviews by child reporters from the National Eurochild Forum – Bulgaria and the Megaphone Youth Network.
All of them evaluate the progress of the government on 8 key topics: Wellbeing of children, Protection from all forms of violence, Early child development, Child health, Education, Family environment and alternative care, Child Justice and Child participation.
The rest of the grades in the Report Card are as follows:
Wellbeing: 2.50 (bad)
The results in the Report Card point that one out of three children in Bulgaria is at risk of poverty. There is a significant gap in family incomes and the effect of social payments is insignificant. The social exclusion of children with special needs and children with chronic and rare diseases is clearly visible.
Family environment and alternative care – 3 (average)
The number of children living separately from their families remains relatively constant. With the delays of the Social services law and the National child strategy the specific measures for supporting families and prevention of separation of children from their parents have been delayed indefinitely. The problems regarding the quality of alternative care for children in resident care in communities remain unsolved.
Child justice – 3 (average)
2019 is yet another year during which there is no progress on the rights of children in conflict with the law and they keep getting punished for misdemeanors for which even adults are not held responsible. Despite the renewal of the work of the working expert group on the Law for educative measures for crimes and misdemeanors by minors, further plans for putting this law in motion are not clear.
Protection of children from all forms of violence – 2.50 (bad)
Bulgaria remains without a National child strategy and without a plan for handling violence against children. This complicates not only the help for children victims of violence but also the very necessary actions by responsible institutions for preventing such cases as shown by the multitude of such occurrences during the last months.
Early child development – 3 (average)
The problems with the lack of specialists and lack of coordination between systems remain. The delay in accepting the National strategy for early child development is evident. 2019 is yet another year during which a big part of the planned government activities aimed at improving the quality of maternal healthcare as a starting point towards improvement of child health and reduction of perinatal and neonatal mortality were not put into motion.
Child health – 3 (average)
Bulgaria still has no modern children’s hospital. Despite the government’s commitment in 2020 to demolish the abandoned unfinished building on the premises of Alexandrovska hospital and rebuild it, the project is full of uncertainty and unresolved problems.
Education – 4 (good)
This is the field in which the biggest progress has been achieved. Despite the problems with quality of education in small townships, community schools, functional illiteracy, the fact that in many places inclusive education is just formally implemented, as a whole the government is committed and is attempting to fulfill its promise.
Child participation - 3 (average)
There is no clear and common understanding of what the authentic child participation means. A child is predominantly seen as an object to be influenced upon, rather than an autonomous subject and a standalone person with full rights.
