ed
pedagogy and physical education to the basic curriculum.

Soon after the communist takeover the combined elementary-secondary
period of schooling was reduced from twelve to eleven years. The
objectives of a secondary education were described in the following
terms: "the general promotion of the physical and intellectual
development of adolescents, the weaning of their minds from extreme
nationalist and reactionary ideas, the inculcation of the spirit of
progress, and preparation for creative participation in the economic and
cultural life of the country." The curriculum of the secondary schools
was changed in order to incorporate these goals. Latin and Greek were no
longer required, but Russian became compulsory. A new subject called
general history subsumed within it the old studies of religion, ethics,
political economy, and Bulgarian. Astronomy was added to the new
curriculum.

Between 1949 and 1959 other changes were introduced in the secondary
school system. There were then two principal forms of secondary
education: the general school and the technical school. Grades eight to
eleven of the general school, which were considered part of secondary
education, included study of Bulgarian language and literature; Russian;
French, German, or English; mathematics; physics; astronomy; chemistry;
biology; history; constitutional history; geography; psychology and
logic; geometrical drawing; and physical education.

Technicums and vocational-technical secondary schools, on the other
hand, offered courses ranging from two to five years that gave the
student a specialized education. Graduates of the eleven-year general
school attended these schools for two years; students who had completed
less than eleven years attended for three to five years. In 1952 labor
reserve schools were established. These factory schools offered one-year
or two-year training programs to young people from fourteen to seventeen
years of age who had already completed their elementary education.

During the 1960s the new polytechnic secondary school was introduced in
order to incorporate the elements of a general and specialized education
into one system. Although this type of secondary education continued to
be the main form of secondary education, it was criticized on two
seemingly paradoxical counts. One group of critics claimed that the
polytechnic school gave the student neither a sound general education
nor a solid base in professional train