ss education.

Teacher training was accomplished at three main levels: pedagogical
schools for training preschool and elementary teachers; pedagogical
faculties or departments at universities and teachers' institutes for
training secondary teachers; and a postgraduate studies program to
prepare lecturers and professors for higher educational institutions.
There were also refresher training courses conducted at various centers,
which all teachers were required to attend once every five years until
they had accumulated twenty-five years of experience in the profession.
These courses varied in length and generally stressed advances in
pedagogical science, counseling techniques, and utilization of modern
teaching aids.

As evidence of the importance it placed on the teaching profession, the
government, since 1967, has instituted many practices intended to
improve the social position of teachers in the community as well as to
increase their personal benefits. Among these innovations was the
creation of the titles of professor emeritus, educator emeritus,
outstanding professor, and outstanding educator in order to honor
individuals for exceptional work. The government also authorized several
orders and medals to be awarded to teachers for outstanding service and
accomplishments.

Teachers were also nominated for places on local people's councils, and
increasing numbers were declared eligible for election to the Grand
National Assembly. To raise the standard of living for the teaching
corps, a new wage system was introduced in 1969, which granted pay
increases at all teaching levels, improved promotions, and raised
retirement benefits. Government assistance was made available to all
teachers for the construction of individual homes in either urban or
rural areas in which they were assigned.

EDUCATION OF MINORITIES

Although the government has recognized in principle the right of the
national minorities to use their native languages in education, the
implementation of official educational policies has reflected a strong
preference for the incorporation or integration of all minority groups
into the general population. The dissatisfaction of the large Hungarian
and German minorities with the inadequacies of minority education
eventually surfaced in early 1969 at the national congress of
educational workers, and since that time the regime has taken steps to
reduce inequalities in the system by providing additional facili