ing schools. Teachers of grades
five through seven, who had completed their secondary education, trained
at two-year institutes. As before the communist takeover, teachers of
secondary education and university professors had to complete their
training at a university. Teachers of physical education, fine arts, and
music were trained at the appropriate section of an institution of
higher education.

In 1953 the government established the Institute for the Improvement of
Teachers for the purpose of providing refresher courses for teachers.
This institute also provided teachers with the proper ideological
orientation. The government stated that the objectives of this institute
were to provide the "dogmatic ideological improvement of teachers ...
and ... the study and application of [the] Soviet teaching experience."
The institute offered such courses as pedagogy, psychology, Bulgarian
language and literature, Russian language and literature, Bulgarian
history, the Bulgarian constitution, mathematics and physics, natural
science and chemistry, and geography.

In 1959, however, it was decided that all elementary-school
teachers--those who taught grades one through four--would be trained at
teacher training colleges, and all secondary-school teachers--who taught
grades five through eleven--would attend higher educational
institutions.

In mid 1973 both kindergarten teachers and teachers of the first to
fifth grades were trained at intermediate teacher training institutes.
Teachers of grades five through eight also began their training at the
same institutes, where they trained for three years after the completion
of their secondary education. When they had completed this level of
their education, they continued at an institute of higher education.
Teachers of the fifth through eleventh grades had to have a diploma from
an institution of higher education. Vocational-school teachers and art
teachers were trained at appropriate faculties of higher educational
institutions.

Teachers are paid at various levels depending on their academic
backgrounds and current circumstances. The three basic determinants of a
teacher's salary are his or her academic qualifications, the number of
classes covered per week, and the overall length of service. Every
teacher is entitled to a 4-percent increase in salary after every five
years of teaching. The total increase is limited to 16 percent. Teachers
who work excessively long hours are gra