DEVELOPMENT OF THE KEY COMPETENCES AT PRIMARY SCHOOL THROUGH TEACHING OF BULGARIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract

Ten years after the introduction of a European framework of the key competences for lifelong learning (2017) the national policies for orientation of school systems to achievement of key competencies are still not enough effective. National strategy for lifelong learning has been accepted in Bulgaria not until the 2014. It is in response not only to the European requirements but to the public expectations above all for quality education with a view to acquiring of the key competencies that are necessary for personal fulfilment, social inclusion and active citizenship in new knowledge-based society.
Modernisation of the educational content is one of the planned activity for orientation of the educational process to development and acquisition of the key competencies. The new educational programmes for primary school are a part of the efforts to the creation of sustainable system in this respect, because the key competences as a combination of knowledge, skills and attitudes should be acquired at the end of compulsory schooling. The sustainability of this system depends from teaching strategies as well, because the key competences are all overlapping and work together and emphasize on critical thinking, creativity, initiative, problem solving and decision making. This approach shifts the focus to outcomes of the learning process: what a learner knows, understands and is able to do.
The present study discusses the competence orientation of education in primary school in the context of new educational paradigm, that bind acquisition of the key competences with achievement of the basic level of functional literacy. The interconnection between acquisition of the key competences and the objective competences of the Bulgarian language education in primary school (linguistic, literary, communicative and socio-cultural) is discussed as well. Some pedagogical strategies for their integrated development are proposed.