the
professional arts and in technical and teacher training schools. Studies
in art schools lasted one or two years and consisted of combined courses
of general subjects and specialized training in cultural activities,
including various forms of art and drama. Technical schools specialized
in industrial fields, agriculture and its associated subfields,
forestry, socialist economics, and public health. Courses offered
covered four or five years, the time depending on the area of
specialization, and included basic courses in general education.
Graduates in these technical fields were designated for employment in
intermediate-level positions. Teacher training schools, also of four or
five years' duration, trained students exclusively for teaching
positions at the preschool and elementary levels.

Vocational secondary education encompassed the largest number of schools
and was reported to enroll almost 50 percent of all secondary school
students. These schools provided a one- or two-year program of combined
general education and vocational training in all the trades necessary
for the national economy. Vocational schools were usually organized at
the locations of industrial enterprises and socialist cooperatives, and
students were trained as skilled workers. Additional vocational training
was also provided in the form of apprentice or on-the-job training to
workers already employed in industrial installations. The bulk of these
trainees had either completed the compulsory level of education and then
dropped out of school or had failed to be selected in the competitive
examination for entrance into secondary school. Vocational training had
not kept pace with increasing industrialization, and in 1972 the demand
for trained workers continued to surpass the supply (see ch. 16).

Higher Education

The system of higher education was comprised primarily of universities
and polytechnical and specialized institutes, which in 1971 had a total
enrollment of approximately 150,000 students. All institutions were
under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Education and were
geared to produce specialists in the humanities, in the social, natural,
physical, and engineering sciences, and in education as needed to fill
positions in government and all sectors of the economy. The schools of
higher learning were generally headed by a rector (university) or a
director (technical institute), who was appointed by the Ministry of
Educatio