Minister of Education Krasimir Valchev commented on the poor results of the external assessments, emphasizing that they are comparable to previous years. However, the situation in mathematics is critical—nearly 50% of the grades are failing (grade 2), as the threshold for a passing grade (grade 3) is 30 points, while the average result is 38.45 points. Valchev noted that after 7th grade, private lessons artificially inflate results, but after 10th grade, where scores are even lower, the picture is more objective.