A new GIS dashboard presents the performance of graduating students by municipality and subject over the last seven academic years
The Class of 2026 achieved an average score of 60 points on the State Matriculation Examination in Bulgarian Language and Literature – the highest result since the introduction of the mandatory matriculation exam in 2008.
The improvement is also visible at the regional level. The number of municipalities with an average grade above 4.50 increased from 32 in the 2024/2025 academic year to 48 in 2025/2026, representing nearly one-fifth of all 265 municipalities in the country. The highest results were recorded in Nedelino and Chelopech, both with an average grade of 5.26, followed by Gotse Delchev (4.92) and Pravets (4.90). At the other end of the ranking are mainly small municipalities with a limited number of graduating students, making their results more sensitive to the performance of individual students. The data show that the improvement in results over the last three years is not limited to a few municipalities but extends across an increasingly wider range of communities throughout the country.
Would you like to learn more about what the data from the State Matriculation Examinations reveal over the past seven academic years?
Following the announcement of the State Matriculation Examination results for the 2025/2026 academic year, Esri Bulgaria created a GIS dashboard that provides an opportunity for a detailed analysis of the performance of twelfth-grade students across all municipalities in the country.
Anyone interested can explore the results through the new interactive dashboard, available on desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones. The platform offers a fast and easy way to examine the data through a web map, charts, and dynamic filters.
The dashboard brings together information from seven academic years – from 2019/2020 to 2025/2026 – enabling not only a review of the latest data but also the tracking of trends over time.
The application allows users to compare results across municipalities, analyze the number of students who took the examinations, monitor changes in average achievement at national and regional levels, and explore performance across individual subjects.
The interactive map enables users to select a specific municipality with a single click and obtain detailed information about its performance. The visualizations update automatically according to the selected academic year or district, making analysis fast and intuitive.
In addition to providing current information, the dashboard enables comparisons between different years and regions, helping to identify long-term trends and differences in educational outcomes across Bulgaria.
Key features include:
• Comparison of results among municipalities across the country;
• Visualization of data on an interactive map;
• Filtering by academic year and district;
• Tracking trends in results for the period 2019–2026;
• Analysis of the number of students who sat the examinations;
• Comparison of average achievement across different general education subjects;
• Access to detailed information for each municipality through map selection.
“Presenting data through an interactive GIS dashboard can support the analysis of trends at national, regional, and municipal levels. The goal is to identify good examples of schools and municipalities that achieve consistently high results over the years and to encourage their approaches to serve as a model for others. I am confident that the teachers and principals there have valuable experience and good practices to share with colleagues across the country. Our role is to present the data through maps and analyses so that they can be useful to society,” commented Miglena Kuzmanova, Managing Director of Esri Bulgaria.
Explore the interactive dashboard at: https://fpls.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/0a3c2ccfdd524512a8bf53100d4bf1ef
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