117
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PROCESSES IN EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
the chances of science to develop success-
fully. This assumption has determined the
absence of any state policy typical of the
modern states: the working out of national
priorities, programmes and mechanisms for
organization, co-ordination and control in
the sphere of scientific and technological
research. A contribution to the giving up
of a national science policy has been the
sharp confrontation of political forces and
the ensuing lack of prospects and stability
in the state policy as a whole. None of the
leading political forces has put on the
agenda the future of science from the point
of view of the national interests. Instead of
tackling fundamental problems of Bulgar-
ian science, in which the crisis endured by
society is painfully felt, the approach taken
to science proceeded opportunistically.
Important scientific units were closed down
or substantially weakened. A considerable
stock of scientific information and docu-
ments has been scattered. Valuable highly
qualified specialists
and young and hope-
ful researchers left science.
Other factors have also had a nega-
tive impact. The personnel vacuum is in-
tensifying, the continuity of generations of
researcher has been violated. The low sal-
ary has pushed scientists towards the search
for opportunities of raising their incomes
by engaging in additional work, sometimes
far from science. The sharp increase of the
number of higher educational establish-
ments in almost all former district cities,
as well as the teaching of one and the same
subjects in many of these establishments
has attracted a great number of research-
ers to lecturing. They take on a high load-
ing of lectures, which diminishes their po-
tential for full-fledged research work.
These have been phenomena detract-
ing from the motivation of scientists and
entailing a loss of scientific qualifications.
Their complex impact has been drastically
demoting the prestige of science as a pro-
fession in the eyes of the young genera-
tion. In the period preceding 1990, the
spheres of science was the only sphere in
society, where highly qualified specialists
of great creative potential could work with
relatively the greatest freedom and find
self-expression. Though they did not have
a high
status in terms of incomes,
the sci-
entists were acknowledged to be the most
important part of the intellectual elite of
the nation. During the past few years, sci-
ence has lost that privileged position ow-
ing to the crisis in it and owing to the emer-
gence of spheres for the professional self-
expression of the young which are more
prestigious both in terms of social status
and incomes.
Against that negative background,
what needs urgent legislative regulation are:
- the powers of the central and local
authorities in the sphere of the formula-
tion and pursuit of the policy in science
and technology;
Science and the political conjuncture
The conjuncture character of
state interference in scientific life
stands out prominently when the
legislative work is followed. With
the exception of the law, regulat-
ing the activities of the BAS, un-
der the new conditions the great-
est attention of the legislators and
the greatest amount of energy was
spent on the part of society in the
endorsement and subsequent re-
scinding of the Law on the
Decommunization in Science,
referred to as the Panev law.
According to that law, scientists
who had occupied Communist
Party posts even on the level of
primary party organizations were
deprived of the right to be elected
on administrative positions in sci-
ence from head of a chair up-
wards, as well as to bodies of ap-
preciative functions - scientific
boards, editorial boards of scien-
tific journals, etc. Those who were
affected turned out to be estab-
lished scientists of international
renown. Neither the passing of the
Panev law in 1992 nor its re-
scinding in 1995 has been unam-
biguously assessed by the scien-
tific community. The almost
three-year long concentration of
the attention of the scientific com-
munity on the debates in favour
of or against the Panev law has
resulted, however, in lasting ten-
sions amidst the scientific com-
munity and has side-tracked the
attention from the most impor-
tant problems of Bulgarian sci-
ence for a long time. The atmo-
sphere of confrontation has con-
tributed to the decline of the na-
tional scientific and technological
potential and to a sharp drop of
the public prestige of science and
the scientific profession.
Box 9.5.
Urgent legislative
regulation of science is
needed
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT ! BULGARIA 1996
118
- the status of the scientific and tech-
nological organizations;
- financing of scientific and technologi-
cal research, including legislative regula-
tion of the funds for research;
- the mechanisms of social supervision
of scientific and technological research and
of co-ordination of interests, affected by
the carrying out of research.
The passing of adequate laws is not
sufficient. The state has to take up its role
of a main factor in the sphere of the for-
mulation and implementation of the na-
tional scientific and technological policy.
It has to comply with the restructuring of
the economy and with the national priori-
ties in key spheres as education, public
health, environmental conservation and
defence. The state is the factor, which has
to define, by democratic procedures, the
national priorities of the scientific and tech-
nological development and the means of
their attainment.
It is a task of major importance for
the state to guarantee co-ordination be-
tween the development of national science,
technological innovation and education. In
this respect it has been a positive fact that
since 1995 the problems of the formula-
tion of the national policy in science and
technology have been brought to the fore
as an obligation of a state body of the ex-
ecutive authorities, namely the Ministry of
Education, Science and Technologies. This
body can synchronize the activity of the
state with regard to the main spheres which
play important role in the formation of the
human capital. The full-fledged work of the
Ministry, however, needs special units,
which are to feed data about the state and
trends in national science, education and
technological innovations.
The situation of Bulgarian science
makes it imperative both for the state and
for the scientific community to be much
more active in resolving the fundamental
problems of the scholars and of the re-
search units. Some changes in society make
it possible to come up with such solutions.
It is proper to tie up the privatization with
the encouragement of research in science
and technology. A certain percentage of
the revenues coming from privatization
could be allocated to the funds, stimulat-
ing research and the improvement of the
infrastructure of science. Outstanding in-
ventors, whose intellectual products have
contributed to the prosperity of Bulgarian
production may be rewarded via the
mechanisms of mass privatisation.
Two basic trends have stood out in the
sphere of international techno-scientific co-
operation since 1989. The first has been
conditioned by the international context
and by the democratic changes taking place
in the country. It finds expression in the
establishment of direct contacts by higher
educational establishments, institutes, and
laboratories with governmental and non-
governmental research units in the coun-
tries of Western Europe and North
America. Action taken in the sphere of in-
ternational law has also been part of this
trend:
- joining the European conventions on
the recognition
of certificates on comple-
tion of education;
- involvement in the West European
programmes and structures - PHARE,
TEMPUS, NATO, ACE, COPERNICUS;
- assistance in the form of consulta-
tions;
Programme for the restructuring of the Academy of
Agricultural Sciences
Some 13.6% of the researchers
are employed at the Academy of
Agricultural Sciences. The prog-
ramme for its restructuring aims
at preserving to the maximum
the available scientific potential
and at adapting its work to the
diverse forms of management of
the land and to the changes in
regional specialization. Addi-
tional specialization is envisaged
of the research along fundamen-
tal scientific lines. At the same
time units, which have so far spe-
cialized in research on individual
farm products, will secure a
higher degree of comprehensive
regional scientific servicing.
Box 9.6.
The state has to specify
the priorities of the
development of science
and technology