OPTIMA

THE BULGARIAN ASSOCIATION OF
QUALITY LANGUAGE SERVICES

Galya Mateva

AIMS
Optima aims to promote and guarantee quality in Bulgarian institutions teaching foreign languages for the benefit of students and staff. It also aims to support the overall activities and defend the interests of its member schools. Ultimately, it is committed to continually improve the standards of FLT in full compliance with the European norms.

HISTORY
OPTIMA is a textbook example of Pan-European cooperation. The first "Why don`t you do it" impetus came from QUEST Romania in early 1998. Later in the same year the ECML workshop on "The Concept of Quality in Language Teaching" turned out to be a corner-stone event which indicated the concrete steps towards the establishment of a national association. The idea of creating a self-financing institution for quality control in the language sector was fully supported by the British Council, Bulgaria and gradually integrated into a project called "Quality in Language Education" and later on in another one under the name of "Professional Organisations".
In January 1999 a meeting in Sofia gathered prospective candidates with the purpose of spelling out the project idea, tapping the local resources and uniting the efforts of well-established language schools in the country. Later on, a seminar in June led by Maria Matheidesz from Hungary and another one in October led by Frank Heyworth from EAQUALS and Laura Muresan from Romania helped to start intensive work on Optima`s Constitution, Accreditation and Inspection Scheme. The first seminar was sponsored by the British Council whereas the second one was a result of a successful ELTeCS bid cofinanced by the British Council and the ECML.
As a result of these activities the Bulgarian Association of Quality Language Services was formally established in April, 2000. In June the same year a seminar run by Ludka Kotarska from PASE, Poland, presented the Polish experience in organising and conducting school inspections. It helped us work out the Inspection Procedure and draft the Guidelines for Schools and Inspectors. By the end of the year, once again with the support of Laura Muresan, we were able to carry out the first mock inspections in Sofia and improve our documents. The periods between all seminars were characterised by an even distribution of functions and responsibilities among Optima`s members, by well-synchronised and productive group work.
After a relatively short but thorough period of preparation the real inspections are currently under way and the majority of founder members (all those who applied) have already received accreditation.
Meanwhile another successful ELTeCS bid called "Quality Control across the Borders of Eastern Europe" created excellent opportunities to exchange inspectors with Romania, Croatia and Serbia, and carry out joint inspections in these countries. Four of the Bulgarian schools were inspected and accredited by international teams of inspectors. These inspections served the dual purpose of making the inspection process more transparent and credible and at the same time of intensively exchanging local expertise.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
A Committee of 7 members elected by the General Assembly runs Optima. Each member has clearly defined responsibilities in the areas of inspection and accreditation, staff training, marketing, finance, electronic communications, liaising with other organisations and, finally, general management.
The other governing bodies are the Inspection Committee (consisting of 3 members), and the Supervisory Committee (also consisting of 3 members).
Optima`s Chair is elected every two years by the General Assembly.

MEMBERSHIP
The group of founder members of OPTIMA represents 7 language centres, schools and school chains as well as 4 regional university associations all over the country. In 2001 five new schools joined the Association, with some more in the pipeline. According to Optima`s regulations, each school is obliged to apply and pass the inspection within a period of two years, and only accredited schools can retain membership.

THE INSPECTION AND ACCREDITATION PROCESS
The inspection of a school is carried out every three years. Prior to that all candidate schools are provided with an application form, a pre-inspection questionnaire and are also invited to attend training events. The Accreditation Handbook supplies a detailed account of all documents that have to be submitted 3 weeks before the inspection. Each inspection is conducted by two inspectors - one internal (a representative of one of Optima`s schools) and one external (a foreign inspector or a local expert).
The inspection lasts for one or two days and depends on the school size. The fees vary accordingly. After the inspection the two inspectors submit their report to the Inspection Committee for endorsement.

INSPECTION CRITERIA AND GRADING
The main areas of inspection are Management, Academic Management, Standards of Teaching and, finally, General. In order to pass, a school has to score 69 out of 100 points. Management carries 20 points (pass mark 14), Academic Management 24 points (pass mark 17), Standards of Teaching 38 points (pass mark 26) and General 18 points (pass mark 12).
The inspectors apply a three-point grading scale whereas 0 is fail, 1 is pass and 2 is excellent. In order to pass, a school has to show at least 5 marks of excellence in management and 5 marks of excellence in teaching. A school is denied accreditation in case it does not reach the pass mark or is referred in any of the categories and then re-inspected within a fixed period of time.

THE INSPECTORS
All inspectors undergo an intensive training programme of at least 60 hours. After that they join different retraining events organised by Optima. The programme consists of a theoretical component as well as a practical component, which includes mock inspections and case studies.
The inspectors come from accredited schools or are independent experts. Ideally, one local (internal or external) and one foreign inspector form the team of inspectors.
The inspectors are fully qualified and experienced foreign language teachers with managerial skills. Experience in teacher training and mastery of more than one foreign language are additional assets.


WEB SITE: www.baqls-optima.bg