By Mykhaylo Gryshchenko | Monitoring and Data Expert
Hi!
The 2026/2027 school year opened with thirteen new schools joining “Better at Math with Khan Academy” in September. This brings our network to 30 schools. The number of teachers we have trained since the programme began passed 460.
In September, Venelin Petkov, a true intellectual devoted to the cause of equitable education, joined our team as a new executive director.
Over the summer Khan Academy launched its biggest redesign in years: Khan Academy Classroom. We published a free handbook for teachers. We also worked relentlessly on new high school math and middle school physics content. Teachers from Sofia and Burgas shared how using Khan Academy in the classroom brought higher grades and exam points to their students.
These results could not have happened without you. Thank you for standing behind the teachers and students who are turning effort into real progress.
Education Without Backpacks team
Meet Venelin Petkov – Our New Executive Director
On September 14, Venelin Petkov became executive director of Education Without Backpacks. He brings more than 30 years of experience in media, including six years as head of news at bTV, a Fulbright fellowship at the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Peabody Award, and has most recently worked as a teacher and communications consultant. Rozalina Laskova, who led the organisation for more than ten years, has stepped back from the executive role and will continue as a strategic advisor.
Thirteen New Schools Join the Programme
In September, 13 new schools began working with Khan Academy as part of “Better at Math with Khan Academy”. They come from nine regions – Burgas, Vratsa, Gabrovo, Montana, Pazardzhik, Razgrad, Ruse, Silistra and Sofia. Two of them are village schools.
Twelve of them took part in a three-day initial training in Bankya on August 18–20. The thirteenth school, Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov Secondary School in Primorsko had its own session in early September.
With this cohort, 30 schools are now in the programme and more than 460 teachers have been trained since it began. Each new school receives mentoring from our education experts throughout the year. The expansion is supported by the UniCredit Foundation.
Principal Story: Five Points Higher on the National Exam in Burgas
Hristo Botev Primary School sits in the Pobeda neighbourhood of Burgas, one of the city's most disadvantaged. This year its fourth-graders raised the school's average result on the National External Assessment in mathematics from just over 18 points to almost 24 – a gain of roughly five points in a single year.
Principal Magdalena Yapadzhieva credits Khan Academy, which was used in daily lessons and in the afternoon extended-day groups, school’s programme coordinator, and all teachers adapting the platform. “Results with a magic wand do not exist,” she says of her team, whom she calls true heroes.
What's new at Khan Academy
A New Khan Academy version for the Classroom has been launched this summer. It is built around the teacher's work in class and has many improvements - the teacher dashboard is new, it is easier to set assignments and follow each student's progress. For students the platform is clearer and more motivating.
There is new Bulgarian content in Math, Physics and an educational course for teachers "Become a Khan Teacher in Khan Classroom". Mathematics experts on our team published 24 new materials – videos and exercises – for Grades 8, 9 and 10. A new Grade 5 Physics course for BG curriculum went live: with diverse topics such as Earth and space, gravity and the Solar system, forces, etc.
Teacher Story: Consistent Use, Higher Grades
Stefan Stefanov teaches mathematics at the National Financial and Economic High School in Sofia. This summer he graduated the first cohort he has taught with Khan Academy from start to finish – five consecutive years, from Grade 8 to Grade 12.
His method is consistency. He assigns videos, articles and exercises two or three days before a new unit begins, opens lessons with a short task to revive what students need that day, and checks mid-unit how far each student has got and how many attempts it took. He also raised the bar as they grew: a minimum mastery level of 60% in Grade 8, rising to 90% by Grade 12.
Average annual mathematics grades in his classes moved from a 4.38–5.15 range in Grade 8 to 5.50–5.88 in Grade 12, and, he notes, the improvement held across all parallel classes using Khan Academy.
New Free Resources for Teachers and Parents
At the end of August we published the handbook “Better at Math with Khan Academy” on how to teach with Khan Academy in the classroom. It includes self-assessment tests, checklists, lesson plans, sample rubrics, data tasks and worksheets, and it is available for free online. The handbook was supported by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
In September we also adapted Khan Academy's framework “Smart Screens, Healthy Kids” for Bulgaria – a practical guide for teachers and parents of children aged 2 to 8.
Khan Academy Localisation (July – September 2026)
Translation: 335,9K words
Proofreading: 335,1K words
Creating new content: 24 materials in Mathematics for Grades 8–10; a new Grade 5 Physics course with 36 materials
Bulgarian remains fifth among all Khan Academy languages by volume of translated content, after Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, and German.
Ending the School Year With Rockets and Formula 1
In late June, students at our two longest-running partner schools in Sofia closed the school year – and the three-year project – with mathematics they could see. Seventh-graders at 75th Todor Kableshkov Primary School built and launched water rockets that reached 10 to 15 metres, with instructors from the Sci-High club at SoftUni Buditel. At 71st Peyo Yavorov Secondary School in Kazichene, students took on a Formula 1 simulation in virtual reality and worked through trajectories and reaction times. Teacher Martin Mitov received a certificate of gratitude for committed work. Both events were supported by the UniCredit Foundation.
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