From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Bulgarians/Mariela Dakova
The first Bulgarian-English school in Canada was operated in Toronto in 1912 and 1913 by Apostol Kalavasov.
With closing of the Bulgarian-language schools in Macedonia in 1913 as a result of Serbian and Greek policy, Macedono-Bulgarians in Canada opened such schools, “so their children in the free world would have the opportunity to study their native language.” At SS Cyril and Methody Church in Toronto, the Cultural-Educational Society Prosveta opened a Bulgarian-lan-guage school and paid the salary of the teacher. By 1923 eighty children were attending the school. The best-known teacher was Petranka Andonova, who was assisted by the Slavonic Committee in Sofia, which supplied textbooks, children’s magazines, and books on Bulgarian folk tradition.
During the inter-war years there were other Bulgarian schools in Toronto, Kitchener, and Windsor. In 1941 a Bulgarian school was founded at Toronto’s St George Church, taught by the priest V. Mihailoff and his wife, Rajna. Their program included Bulgarian language, grammar, history, geography, and theology. The school was supported by the church and by the Macedonian Political Organization Pobeda (Victory). A school for recently arrived Bulgarians was also founded at St George. Bulgarian-language courses were offered at Holy Trinity, where the priests conducted classes.
In Ottawa the public and the separate (Catholic) boards of education run schools that offer Saturday classes in the Bulgarian language for children, an English course for adults, and lessons in Bulgarian history and geography.
In 1994 the Bulgarian Cultural Association in Montreal opened a school, which is attended by twenty-five children. Instruction in language, literature, history, and geography is given every Saturday by volunteers, all with university degrees.
