ires trained scientific
and technological personnel, there are more admissions in these areas
than in the arts. Students, however, have indicated a greater interest
in the humanities, but admissions in these areas are few. In 1973 for
every place available in the humanities, there were six applicants. For
every place available in the sciences, there were only four applicants.
The inevitable result of such a policy is the creation of a group of
young people who are engaged either in a study not of their choice or
who have been dissuaded from the field of higher education altogether.

The most serious problem is the fact that only a small proportion of
applicants are accepted in universities and institutes because there are
simply not enough facilities available to them. In an average year there
are generally 70,000 applicants and only 15,000 acceptances. Thus,
roughly 80 percent of all applicants are rejected by the institutions of
higher education in Bulgaria. Although students are allowed to reapply
at a future date, because they are not generally permitted to study
abroad, this overflow has resulted in the problem of the so-called idle
youth. At the beginning of 1972 authorities estimated that there were
approximately 50,000 of these people. Although the government has
attempted to deal with this problem by forcing the idlers to either work
or be trained for work--and they have been quite successful, as idlers
were estimated to be down from approximately 51,000 to 9,000 in less
than six months--they have failed to deal with the root cause of the
problem, that is, insufficient places in higher education.

TEACHER TRAINING

Between 1921 and 1932 all primary and _progymnasium_ teachers had to
complete the normal school section of the gymnasium. In 1932, however,
all normal schools were abolished, and teachers were trained in two-year
pedagogical institutes that demanded completion of the gymnasium for
admission. The pedagogical institutes were subdivided into three
sections: the humanities, the sciences, and arts and crafts. Gymnasium
teachers, in turn, had to have a university degree. Vocational-school
teachers generally were vocational-school graduates themselves.

In 1944 two new forms of teacher training, both based on the Soviet
model, were established. Teachers in the kindergartens and the four-year
elementary schools, who had already completed seven years of elementary
school, attended five-year teacher train