I just learned the full, dirty truth about stipends for students today. Every month, some student always comes back from the "restroom" and declares to the entire class "stipends are down at the office!" Right after that, about half the class, and all good students, decide that they also need to go to the "restroom." Today, kind of bored, I finally asked about the details.
It turns out that if a student has enough "6"s (The Bulgarian equivalent of an "A") they get 21 leva a month from the government. Shocked, I did the math on this. About 11 students per class, I'm told, usually get a stipend. Let's call that about half a class. Moving that to about half the school, that turns into about 380 students getting 21 leva a month. That totals about 8000 leva a month. Over ten paying months, that's 80,000 leva (About 53,000 dollars) a year the government gives students at one school just for getting "A"s.
I got my name in the newspaper, I remember.
But when I pushed this further, I realized that few of my objections to it made sense. There's no way the government could pull that money away to give it to school programs. The students would riot, and besides, this is Bulgaria, not America. It's a different system, I suppose. But still. That 80,000 leva could easily buy a new gym floor. It could buy more than one computer for every classroom. Endless possibilities.
And the biggest question here is how on Earth students aren't getting "6"s. I mean honestly, you show up to class, do your classwork, do your homework, and do a decent job on tests, you're going to get a six most of the time. I understand how personal achievement may not be a goal enough to get good grades, but isn't 20 leva a month more than enough incentive for a Bulgarian high schooler? It won't make you rich, but it's a dinner on Saturday night at any restaurant in town. Not too shabby.
I don't know. I just teach 'em. Still, 21 leva a month?!
Posted by Rob at May 3, 2005 09:48 PM