- is responsible for the conduct of the state policy related to the education and training of Bulgarians living outside the Republic of Bulgaria, as well as for the protection of the Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage;
- is responsible for the implementation of the state policy relating to the development of the institutions in the pre-school and school education system, by organizing and coordinating the activities relating to the opening, registration, transformation, reorganization, closing down, deregistration, and deletion of institutions in the pre-school and school education system;
- organizes, coordinates and exercises control over the activities of Bulgarian schools abroad;
- coordinates, assists and exercises organizational and methodical control over the education and training in the educational subjects ‘Bulgarian Language and Literature’, ‘History and Civilization of Bulgaria’, ‘Geography and Economics of Bulgaria’, carried out abroad by the diplomatic representations of the Republic of Bulgaria, by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church communities abroad, by the Slavic-Bulgarian Monastery ‘Holy Martyr Georgi Zograf’, Mount Athos, Greece, as well as by the various organizations of Bulgarians living outside the Republic of Bulgaria, registered under the respective country’s legislation for the purposes of carrying out the educational and cultural activities;
- supports the elaboration of adapted syllabi for the education and training of Bulgarians living outside the Republic of Bulgaria, by coordinating and interacting with the teachers carrying out the training;
- organizes and coordinates activities related to the provision of teaching materials, this to include textbooks and teaching aids for the education and training of Bulgarians living outside the Republic of Bulgaria;
- organizes, coordinates and exercises control over the activities of the teachers in Bulgarian Language and Literature in the foreign universities abroad;
- ensures the coordination and interaction between the organizations of Bulgarians living outside the Republic of Bulgaria;
- develops and is responsible for the introduction and implementation of the state education standard for the institutions in the pre-school and school education system;
- prepares draft lists of the community and sheltered kindergartens and schools, based on data obtained from the regional departments of education and municipalities;
- organizes, coordinates and supervises activities related to the effective exercise of the right to free transportation of pupils;
- organizes and maintains a register of the institutions in the pre-school and school education system;
- is responsible for the elaboration, updating and application of the regulatory acts and the individual and general administrative acts, related to its functional expertise;
- participates in the synchronization of national legislation with the European Union acts relating to its functional expertise.