30,000 more places were to be provided at the preschool level,
28,000 more accommodations at hostels, and 4,500 classrooms at all
levels.

LITERACY

Figures vary to some degree, but at the time of liberation in 1878
between 85 and 90 percent of the Bulgarian population was illiterate. By
the early twentieth century, however, Bulgaria had achieved the highest
literacy rate in the Balkans. Although some scholars stated that only
some 31 percent of the population over school age was literate, by 1920
nearly 50 percent of the population over school age was literate. By
1934 only 31.6 percent of the population over school age was still
illiterate, and by 1940 this figure was reduced to between 20 and 25
percent.

After the Communists took power in the country, literacy increased at a
rapid pace. In 1956 only 17.6 percent of the population over twenty-five
was illiterate, and by 1965 only 8.6 percent was illiterate. In 1973,
although total literacy for people under fifty years of age was claimed
by the government, the rate of literacy of this group was probably
somewhere between 90 and 100 percent.

Of the illiterate population in 1965, approximately three-fourths were
women and only one-fourth were men, reflecting the recency of the
emancipation of women in Bulgaria. Of ethnic groups, the Gypsies have
both the lowest levels of literacy and of education, whereas the Turks
have a significantly higher literacy rate. Jews, Czechs, Greeks, and
Russians all have a relatively high literacy level. In 1965 there were
three times as many illiterates in rural areas as in urban. Also,
illiteracy in Bulgaria was much more common among the older generation
than among the young. In 1965, of the population over 60 years of age,
approximately one-third was illiterate, whereas only a very small
percentage of the working-age group was illiterate. The government
seemed relatively unconcerned about the problem of illiteracy among the
older people, as an official stated: "The high illiteracy rate among the
older population does not present a problem since this is the population
above the working age and this group is not crucial to our economic
life."

THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

Administration and Finance

The 1947 constitution established both the Ministry of Education and the
Committee for Science, Art, and Culture, which held ministry status. In
1954 the Law on Public Education increased the authority of the Ministry
of Education; a