Plovdiv - Education

Education

Around two thirds of the citizens (62,38%) have secondary, specialized or higher education. That percentage increased in the period from 1992 to 2001.

Plovdiv has 78 schools including elementary, high, foreign language, mathematics, technical and art schools. There are also 10 private schools and a seminary. The number of pupils for 2005 was 36,964 and has been constantly decreasing since the mid-1990 due to lower birth rate. Among the most prestigious schools are the English Language School, the High School of Mathematics, the Ivan Vazov Language School, the National Schools of Commerce – Plovdiv, the English Academy, the National School for Music and Dance Art Plovdiv, and the French High School of Plovdiv.

The city has six universities and a number of state and private colleges and branches of other universities. Those include Plovdiv University, with 900 lecturers and employees and 13,000 students; the Plovdiv Medical University, with 2,600 students; the Medical College; the Technical University of Sofia – Branch Plovdiv; the Agricultural University – Plovdiv; the University of Food Technologies; the Academy for Music, Dance and Fine Arts; and others.

The 2009 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) was held at the University of Plovdiv "Paisiy Hilendarski", between 8 and 15 August 2009. The 2009 IOI Honorary Patron was Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.

Between 1875 and 1906, the Zariphios School provided education in the Greek language for Plovdiv's Greek community.