Labor Education Schools
111
Although girls at Podem reported that they are paid a small amount for their labor, a boy from Slavovitza reported receiving no payment: "I=ve been here for about six months. I've never been paid anything for the work even though every week four truckloads of bricks are taken away for sale."213 Boys at Slavovitza told the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee that they are made to work every morning in the attached school farm, where livestock is raised, for which they receive no payment.214 Teachers at Rakitovo informed us that children there receive between two to three thousand leva per year for their work, but that the money is held in care of the educators at the school to prevent the children from spending the money frivolously. The director of Dinevo Labor Education School reported that boys there are paid between 150 and 500 leva per month for their "work experience," wire net making and carpentry.215 Children leave Labor Education Schools ill prepared to assume socially constructive and productive roles in society, let alone with the ability to support themselves. AWhat are their chances when they get out of here? They have difficulty adapting to the outside world. They are left without a job. Before 1989, the [pedagogic office] inspectors were obliged to find work for [Labor Education School] graduates. Now they are no longer obliged to do so and the kids are mostly left out in the streets,@ stated Nikola Kovachki, the Director of Rila Labor Education School.216 Ilka Grigorova, of Children at Risk, a Bulgarian NGO, expressed similar concerns: "labor education schools are not for labor training and not for education. They are prisons. The kids are trained in crafts. They don't receive any skills that are practically marketable, and are not prepared to meet the challenges of living in the outside world."217 Ilka Grigorova expressed particular concern over the future of girls, who she stated often fall into prostitution as a means of support. Upon release from a Labor Education School at age eighteen, boys usually join the Bulgarian army and perform compulsory military service. Her comments were underscored by the comments of children we interviewed. When questioned about 213
CRP interview with Boyan, confined in Slavovitza Labor Education School, from Stara Zagora, April 21, 1996. 214
ALabor Education Schools and the Rights of Juveniles in Bulgaria,@ p. 14.
215
Ibid., p. 19.
216
Ibid., p. 18.
217
CRP interview with Ilka Grigorova, Children at Risk, Sofia, April 17, 1996.