ments had been codified;
new textbooks had been written, printed, and introduced throughout the
system; new teaching methods were in general use; and the revised
teacher training program had produced adequate numbers of "reliable"
teachers at all school levels. Additional schools for minority groups
had been built, and overall progress throughout the system was
sufficient to permit the extension of the compulsory system of education
from four to seven years beginning with the 1958/59 school year.

In the early 1960s demands for skilled and semiskilled agricultural and
industrial workers brought further changes in the educational system. A
renewed general emphasis was placed on polytechnical education, and a
period of practical on-the-job training before entering permanent
employment was instituted for all secondary technical school graduates.
The achievement of this new objective required a further extension of
the compulsory education period to eight years and a relative deemphasis
of the amount of class time allocated to the humanities and other purely
academic subjects.

In 1968 a new educational law was enacted that had far-reaching
consequences, but by late 1971 it had not yet been fully implemented.
Changes provided for under this law were intended to improve the general
quality of education at all levels and to relate education more closely
to expanding technological and industrial needs. In addition, the law
instituted new measures that gave stronger impetus to the political
indoctrination of youth in order to counteract student unrest and
dissatisfaction as well as the spread of Western liberalism (see ch. 9).

Specific modifications to be made in the system under the 1968 law
included the extension of compulsory education to ten years, the
establishment of additional specialized secondary schools, the
introduction of more practical classroom work on vocational and
technical subjects, closer coordination and supervision of
extracurricular projects by the Union of Communist Youth, and the
requirement that teachers include a greater number of political and
ideological themes in all social science courses. The importance
attached to the political aspects of the new program by the regime was
indicated by the creation, in July 1971, of the new post of first
deputy minister of education with the specific function of expanding and
supervising all ideological indoctrination throughout the school system.

LITERACY