On a visit to the Bulgarian school "St. St. Cyril and Methodius" in The Hague‎

published on 5/11/23 8:05 AM

Photo: Facebook/Bulgarian School Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Netherlands

More than 40 Bulgarian Sunday schools abroad are named after the creators of ‎the Slavic alphabet (glagolitsa), the brothers Cyril and Methodius. On May 11, ‎when the Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates the day of the Holy Equal-to-‎the Apostles and Educators Cyril and Methodius, we are visiting one of them - ‎in the administrative capital of the Netherlands, the city of The Hague. And ‎there, as well as in the rest of the schools whose patrons are the co-patrons of ‎Europe, the children are well familiar with the life story and deeds of the two ‎brothers and are proud to attend the Bulgarian language, history and ‎geography classes. ‎

The history of this Bulgarian school began in 2006 when it was founded at the ‎idea and with the support of Bulgarian parents. In the beginning, the school ‎was located in the Dutch city of Leiden. ‎

‎"It started entirely as a volunteer organization of parents who wanted their ‎children to learn Bulgarian and be exposed to Bulgarian culture”, Martin Petrov, ‎a former member of the school's board of trustees, tells us. “Some of the ‎parents taught Bulgarian language and history, but none of them were paid. ‎One of our parents gave up the office where he worked because it was empty ‎on Saturdays and Sundays. Soon, however, the room became too small for all ‎of us to gather there and we had to rent classrooms from a school in the city. It ‎was in the period 2011-2012 when we applied for funding under the Native ‎Language and Culture program to be officially recognized as a Sunday school in ‎the Netherlands. Then we created an association which we registered ‎according to Dutch legislation as such with an ideal purpose, under the name ‎‎"School of St. Cyril and Methodius", and its purpose is to manage the ‎educational process".‎

Immediately after that, the search for professional teachers hired with ‎employment contracts according to Dutch law began. Since September 2018, ‎every Saturday, children now study in The Hague using the building of a local ‎school. "Their number at the moment is 158", explains school principal ‎Radostina Sharenkova and adds:‎

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"In Dutch and international schools, there is a different approach to teaching ‎here - it focuses mostly on play as a way of learning. That's why we can't offer ‎anything different than that, since the children only have two free days, one of ‎which they spend with us. Therefore, the emphasis in education is not so much ‎related to learning by heart, but we try to learn through play or by doing things ‎with our hands - explains the director and adds that the challenge for teachers ‎is great both because of the multilingual environment and also because of the ‎ways in which they have to deliver the lesson. “In some of our classes, parents ‎are guests who tell something related to their profession, their favorite ‎activities or the city in Bulgaria they come from. We try to give advice to the ‎children where and how to spend their vacation when they return to Bulgaria."‎

Yet one of the main challenges for a Sunday school is to make the children a ‎cohesive and supportive community. How is this achieved? ‎

‎"What especially unites and gathers Bulgarians abroad is nostalgia, and on its ‎basis, more common things can be found between people who, at first glance, ‎do not have much in common with each other," Martin explains to us. ‎‎“However, the truth is that children are very different. Some of them associate ‎their entire conscious existence so far with Bulgaria and come from there. ‎Others associate Bulgaria mainly with summer vacations, grandparents and the ‎sea. Their ideas are much more idealistic. Our school strives to organize all ‎kinds of extracurricular activities that additionally bring children and parents ‎together. Among them are courses in folk dances, workshops for making ‎various products, honoring traditions and customs related to Bulgaria”.‎