The State Agency of Youth and Sport (SAYS) is drafting a Youth Development Bill, SAYS Deputy Chairman Mihail Balabanov said at the Council of Ministers on Thursday.

The Bill envisages gambling activity as one possible source for funding youth activities. The Agency is also drawing up a ten-year Strategy on Youth Development. It outlines the priorities in the field.

The education of young people under 19 is of poor quality, according to an opinion poll of the Mediana polling agency conducted on request by SAYS. The results of the poll are included in the annual report of the Agency, which was approved at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The poll shows that young people in Bulgaria are not aware of well-known facts. One third do not know what a squared figure means, 40 percent have not heard of Charles Darwin, 20 percent do not know the value of Pi, over 60 percent believe that USA and Russia were opponents in WWII, only 30 percent know where Andorra is located. About 40 percent of children think that reading books is meaningless occupation.

There is a tendency of improving of the living standards of the young people: 85 percent of them possess mobile phones and 40 percent, a PC. The health status of Bulgarian youth is at average European level.

The access to secondary and higher education is closely related to the parents' financial status. According to Mediana's Kolyo Kolev, in order to resolve this problem the state should launch fellowships for poor children.