“In 2007, we have to make efforts to support the archaeologists in Bulgaria…”

…. said Daniel Valchev, the Minister of education and culture, during his official visit to the Institute of Archaeology and Museum on December 20, 2006. The visit of the Minister is part of the Ministry of Education and Culture’s campaign aimed at focusing the public attention on the academic activities of the institutes at BAS.

Prof. Vassil Nikolov, the Director of IAM, made Minister Valchev acquainted with the activities and functions of IAM, and showed him the Museum’s exhibitions, which excited the guest very much. The Director made the Minister acquainted to a couple of important problems, to which IAM is not the only organization concerned. The extremely low income of the archaeologists in Bulgaria set on the background of the difficult working conditions resulted in a decrease of the prestige of this occupation and to essential difficulties related to the guild’s reproduction. Prof. Nikolov proposed to the Ministry of Education and Culture to initiate a change in the school programs requiring from the school teachers to organize visits of students to museums in the country at least twice a year.

Concerned by the tendency for a break in the generation line in the field of many sciences in Bulgaria, the Minister gave support to the idea for stimulating people who gain important academic results from their intensive archaeological excavations and surveys and expressed his conviction that this initiative will meet the approval of the law makers. The Minister paid attention to the second problem as well and promised to set it immediately to a discussion in the Ministry.