the same time
there were twenty-two pedagogical schools with an enrollment of 8,989
students.

_Table 8. Number of Teachers in Bulgaria, Selected School Years,
1938-70_

--------------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------
Level | 1938/39 | 1948/49 | 1960/61 | 1970/71
--------------------------+-----------|-----------+-----------+----------
Kindergarten | 286 | n.a. | 11,873 | 18,185
Primary | 24,830 | 34,000 | * | *
Secondary | 2,874 | 4,893 | * | *
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------
Total primary-secondary | 27,704 | 38,893 | 51,067 | 54,068
Vocational technical | n.a. | n.a. | 2,835 | 2,734
Secondary vocational | n.a. | n.a. | 0 | 5,720
Technical | n.a. | n.a. | 5,307 | 9,045
| ------ | ------ | ------ | ------
Total technical | 2,487 | 1,109 | 8,142 | 17,499
Teacher training | 50 | n.a. | 251 | 406
Higher education | 588 | 1,169 | 3,883 | 7,125
--------------------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------
n.a.--not available.
* In 1960 the primary and secondary levels were unified under one system.

The concept of practical work as an integral part of the curriculum was
again emphasized, and the scope of vocational training grew enormously
as vocational and technical schools increased threefold. Although all
students had to perform certain tasks as part of their basic education,
the 1957-58 reforms dictated that graduates of higher technical and
agricultural institutions had to perform one year of practical work
before graduation. As the concept of polytechnical education became
widespread at the secondary level, practical work consumed up to
one-third of the total hours of education. Although experimental
vocational training was introduced into the curricula of some gymnasiums
in this period, other gymnasiums, particularly in the rural areas,
required students to spend several hours weekly in formal vocational
studies.

In the same 1957-58 period a number of broad, rather than structural,
reforms were initiated. Schools for ethnic minorities were established
in which, despite the fact