Trends and cases

and the application of research results in the development of empirically validated instructional programmes which are designed to facilitate the achievement of stated learning objectives or learner competencies. Instructional development provides, in my view, a good bridge between educational research and its practical application to the improvement of learning.

They provide a clearly written study guide for students. They have a manual for teachers. The instructional development process can be adapted to various needs at different educational levels. It involves a team approach to the systematic analysis of an instructional problem,

Secondary education and recurrent e d u c a t i o n in S w e d e n ' Gulmar Bergendal To judge from my experience, albeit limited, conferences on problems of education and the world of work tend to be biased in the direction of either education or employment. This lack of balance may make the central problem of interrelations escape serious analysis and consideration. Very few people, in fact, have a thorough knowledge of both the world of work and of educational planning and even fewer decisionmakers have influence over both spheres. I am no exception. This article reflects my experience as secretary of the Swedish 1968 Educational Commission (which was mainly concerned with higher education) and, to a lesser degree, my background as a university teacher of mathematics and my present occupation as director of a school of education. The stress is being laid on overriding problems of educational planning. The point of departure is that the relation between education and employment is a central problem that must affect all facets of that planning.

Gunnar Bergendal (Sweden). Rector of the Malm6 School of Education.

The S w e d i s h school

The compulsory comprehensive school (grundskolan) came into being following a decision by

i

parliament in 1962. It was introduced gradually and was put into effect in all communities since 1972/73. According to the curriculum of 1969, there is no streaming in grades VII-IX and no vocational preparation for specific jobs in the comprehensive school. In upper secondary school (gymnasieskolan) a subdivision is used in Figure I that reflects the earlier organization in three types of schools, the vocational school, the continuation school and the gymnasium. The new organization was introduced in July 1971 and followed a decision by parliament in 1968. The invention was to integrate the upper secondary education and to remove barriers between courses with different historical backgrounds. Since the statistics available concern the old organization, Figure i shows the traditional structure. The upper secondary school consists of the following twentyone courses (lines) of two, three or four years. I. This text is an edited version of a paper presented to a Unesco meeting of experts on secondary education and the world of work (Copenhagen, December 1974).

511

Trends and cases

XIII Xll

7-1 Xl X. Vocational school

Continuation school

GymnasiVm

Upper secondary school

(Gymnasieskolan)

Direct transition rate 75 per cent XVl IX Vlll Vll

XV Comprehensive school

( Grundskolan)

XlV Xlll

Vl

XII

V

XI

IV

X

III

IX

II

VIII

I

VII

Grade

Age ~IG. I.

512

Trends and cases

I~

+|

I

I

,

I

,

I

E

eeeell+leee

.e

9

~'

i

I

T.,

I

I

9

lie

I

. . . . . . .

I!I @

9

I

f ......

l

t-

E

r

~..

._= ~

.~_

E

."-2_

,.r

IItI N N D ~

o ee~ i

N N

!

I

i

l

~. 513

Trends and cases

!

I

!

,

I

I

9 + 9

~Te~

.......,.............+-.P..'.'.'.~:~ ... ~:+:~I ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 9".'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'-'+'+'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. .

~I

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . +,..,,.,....+...*,..,,,,.,.,,,....,,..

.

.

.

.

.

. . " .

. . . .

.

.

. . . . . . .

I

o o o o o l

l

........ -.-.,.-.-......,......-.....-.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C . . . . .

l

l.....,....,.,.........,....,..........v,

Il

t

, % 5l

l

~+II

......... ,.,.,,,...k . . . . .

m'.~+~

9

:.:.:.:.'.:.'.'.;.:.:.:.~.:.:.'.:.:.;.:.:.'.:.;.;.;q.;.;.'.

......... '"'"'"

6~..~ ~'Z "-g

.-~.

+E~"I

1"3

r

r

i @

,A

,,.=.. I

I

I

9. .-.-...-,..,.-...-....,-.-...-..,,.,,,.,..n. 9 9 . . . o9O .,............... ..... .... 9 9 9

I

I

~_,:,:,:, oe~o~e,

iiii?!?iiiiiiii?ili!iiiiiiiiiiil;?i!iil;iir-.

:~ ~g

.w-,

E E

r~

c~

m~ E

=

:~ .=_

i 514

|

u

9- "

N

i

N

n

N

n

~,

NNND

cD

"~

4

Trends and cases

In addition there is, on an experimental basis, a two-year music line, and a variety of special courses on the same level as the regular lines, o r as a continuation or specialization of the lines. The two-year vocational lines are agricultural, building and construction, clothing manufacture, the consumer line, distribution and clerical studies, electtotechnical and telecommtmications, food manufacturing, forestry, motor engineering, nursing, processing techniques, wood industry and workshop. The two-year theoretical studies streams are economics, social sciences and the technical line. The three- and four-year theoretical streams are economics, liberal arts, natural sciences, social sciences and technical studies. Present admission requirements for universities and most colleges require completion of studies of three- or four-year lines. Also the 'theoretical' two-year lines give access to training for primary-school teachers. The reform of the admission requirements decided by parliament in t972 are described later. Figure 2 shows the contacts between the comprehensive school and the labour market and further studies in upper secondary school. Figures 3-5 describe the contacts between the three 'ancestors' of the present upper secondary school and the labour market or further studies of various kinds. The total population of Sweden is 8.2 million and the number of I5- to I9-year-olds is 54o,ooo, making an average of Io8,ooo of each annual cohort. The total capacity of the upper secondary school corresponds to a little more than 9o per cent of the I6-year-olds.

Recurrent education as a s t r a t e g y f o r educational planning THE SWEDISH CONTEXT

Recurrent education as a pattern of behaviour of individual students is not a new idea. How-

ever, in the rapid development of education in the i95os and the I96OS, the trend was towards a longer, continuous period of education, which became on the whole more general in its character. At the I969 meeting of the European ministers of education at Versailles (France), Olof Palme, at that time the Swedish Minister of Education, observed the need to break this trend. 'It is evident that we cannot go on prolonging youth education by adding constantly new two- or three-year periods. Sooner or later the individual shall have to take his part in the production process.' He then outlined the concept of recurrent education and some of its implications. Thus, at that time the need was felt in educational planning to develop systematically patterns of interplay between periods of work and of study, and to promote such an interplay by various means. The Swedish x968 Educational Commission considered the overriding problems of balance in the educational system; among these problems were the allocation of educationalresources between various groups in society, and the equilibrium between manpower needs and the individual demands for education. A preliminary outline of the problems was given in a pamphlet on Higher Education, Its Function and Its Structure published in June i969.1 The idea of recurrent education, as a response to these problems of balance, is not an addition to existing educational structures. Such an addition would mean a profound reorganization of the whole system of education on all levels and for allages, thus including the education of both youth and adults. It was obvious that such major changes could not be brought about overnight. Rather, recurrent education was seen as a longterm strategy, influencing every future decision within the field of education. The idea ofrecturrent education was discussed with great interest by the public. The labour market organizations were, on the whole, in I. Available only in Swedish.

515

Trends and

cases

favour of recurrent education, whereas the universities and the teachers of the academic upper secondary school were opposed, or at least stressed some of the serious problems involved. One important question was whether recurrent education, which offers the student a degree of choice between continuing his studies, or leaving to resume at a later day, will tend to provide even more chances for those who are already advantaged educationally, or will it provide better chances for disadvantaged social groups? Will recurrent education tend towards a more equal distribution of educational resources? There is broad agreement that recurrent education will have a vitalizing effect on the labour market. In the long run, it can have important consequences for the organization of work and the distribution of responsibility at the place of work. It will also increase the mobility of labour and it may affect the security of employment for the worker. If recurrent education develops, as we expect, workers will be eligible for periods of study to a greater extent than now. Young school leavers will be able to take jobs for a few years with the intention of going back to a fairly long period of study. These possibilities may help to bridge the gap between manual and intellectual work, promoting a more equal status for different professional roles. The future of routine jobs may be closely related to the development of recurrent education. If opportunities exist to pass easily from study to work and back to study, young people with extensive educations may be willing to accept routine jobs on a temporary or short-term basis. On the other hand, workers who can now qualify for additional training and more attractive jobs will be less willing to put up with unnecessarily tedious jobs. Thus opportunities for recurrent education will bring pressure on employers to make working conditions more attractive.

516

M E A N S TO D E V E L O P RECURRENT EDUCATION

No single measure is sufficient or necessary for the introduction of recurrent education. The decisive factor is, in the end, the reaction of individual citizens. The eurolment at Swedish universities of adults with work experience has grown rapidly in the last few years, whereas the number of students passing directly from upper secondary school to university has declined considerably. This development is better explained by labour market considerations than by measures taken in educational planning. Yet, if recurrent education is a strategy of planning, its implementation must be achieved by conscious measures. The following outline gives an idea of the actual state of planning, and of trends in present Swedish policy discussions. A broad view will be useful, even if all the measures do not directly concern the problem of the secondary school and the world of work.

Preparation in schoolfor future work and future studies On the upper secondary level, most study programmes are either academic or vocational, but very few of them are mixed programmes that prepare for both future studies and future work. The structural changes needed to promote recurrent education must ensure that all educational programmes for young people, particularly those in their final level of schooling, prepare for both goals, i.e. for subsequent study and for work.

Admission policy To make it a real alternative for everybody to come back to studies after a short or a long period of work, the requirements for admission to further studies have to be changed. In 1972, the Swedish Parliament made a decision in principle that every student who has completed

Trends and cases

an upper secondary programme of at least two years' length, be k academic or vocational in character, will have the right to be accepted for higher education, provided that he has at least two years of Swedish and English on the upper secondary level. Adults of 25 years of age or more, with five years of gainful employment or housework are to be considered as having the equivalent of the required upper secondary qualifications. In most cases, knowledge of specific subjects may be added as a requirement for admission to specific higher educational programmes. The implementation of this decision is envisaged for 1976/77 or 1977/78. It is to be based on the proposals of a commission within the Ministry of Education, whose report was completed in September 1974. In this connexion, the method of selecting students for higher education will be revised. In addition the candidate's marks in school, plus the results of some examinations, his work experience will also count for or against admission. In the public debate on these questions, the notion of a period of gainful employment (or of equivalent work) as an admission requirement to higher education has been discussed. The relevant planning commissions in the Ministry of Education have not made any proposals. The main reasons are the difficulty in assuring meaningful jobs to all these young people, the problems that would arise on the labour market, and a certain doubt about the psychological effects of a compulsory period of work on the individual. It is also asked how such a requirement would affect the social class make up of those in higher education. In the report of the 1968 educational commission, a policy of positive encouragement, through institutional measures and guidance, is recommended to encourage young people to get involved in early periods of employment. As an example of such measures, the recently proposed admission requirement and selection rules to higher education may be mentioned. It should be noted, however, that

the Pupils' Union (Elevfiirbundet) favour a compulsory period of work as a requirement for admission to upper secondary studies.

Contents and organization of higher education The contems and organization of higher education have great importance for young people's choice of work or further study after the completion of upper secondary school. The traditional, theoretical university studies have no appeal to large groups of young people. For many persons with experience of practical work or with a background in vocational education, interest in further studies is primarily related to their work situation. Since the patterns of decision-making and the methods of working in industry are changing rapidly, it is clear that the content of higher education should be oriented towards the emerging methods which the students will meet in the world of work. In accordance with such ideas, an experimental programme for short-cycle technical programmes of higher education has been worked out. The start of the experiment will probably be in 1975/76. Six programmes, most of them of the length of eighteen months, are being planned for: the clothing industry, the food industry, the iron and steel industry, the mechanical industry, the paper and paper pulp industry and the wood industry. The specific entrance qualifications are: completion of the corresponding upper secondary programme (or equivalent practical experience) and at least three years of work experience in the branch. The creation of such short-cycle technical programmes is just one of the measures necessary if higher education is to meet the needs of those that it has to serve. Since students with long practical work experience are an increasing proportion of Swedish university eurolment, many university courses are already being gradually adapted to the needs of adults.

517

Trends and cases

Adult education The term ~adult education' usually covers compensatory programmes for adults whose early educational experience was brief, as well as special courses for retraining or further training. If recurrent education is considered an overriding strategy for planning, it seems natural to include higher education in the concept of adult education. The primary goal of training for the labour market is to prepare for specific occupational activities. Some I4O,OOO persons took part in some kind of labour market training in I97Z/73. In the last few years elements of general education have been included in some of these programmes. This is an essential element in the perspective of recurrent education, to prepare the individual for further studies and for activities of self-development. Compensatory programmes for adults are mainly of three kinds: studies organized by educational associations, courses at folk high schools, or municipal adult education. Present figures of attendance are respectively 2 million, r5,ooo and z5o,ooo. Within the enterprises and the state and municipal administrations, there are varied activities for further training, the extent and character of which is extremely difficult to describe.

Guidance, financing and outreach activities It is well known that the resources of education, and not least those of adult education, are used more by those who have already a fairly good educational background than by those with a minimum of education or training. There is a risk that some patterns of recurrent education will reinforce this tendency to allocate educational resources to those who are already succeeding. Conscious measures have to be taken in order to make it a real alternative, economically and psychologically, for people in all kinds 518

of jobs to return to studies. Two government commissions that have considered these questions produced reports in September I974. According to these proposals, adults with work experience of five years or more should be entitled to a student allowance of 7,650 Swedish kronor a year, to encourage participation in further training. The present system of loans for studies should be applicable to these adult students. Thus for a study period of nine months, the total amount of loan and allowance would be about 2o,ooo kronor. Experiments with informative activities in industries and living areas designed to stimulate people to further studies have been going on since I97o-7 I. It is now proposed that this kind of outreach activity through unions, educational associations and other agencies, should receive permanent support. It is also proposed that loss of income due to absence for studies during working hours should be partly refunded. In the near future, the objective of these measures of economic and psychological support is mainly for the provision of adult education on the secondary-school level. In the long run, it may well be that such support is even more needed for higher education. Examples of higher education where this applies are the short-cycle technical programmes mentioned above.

The location and provision of education If recurring periods of education are to be a real alternative for every citizen, the major part of education for adults (including higher education) has to be made available in the community or its neighbourhood. The proposals of the I968 educational commission foresee permanent facilities for higher education in nineteen places and, in contrast to the present, rather centralized organization of the universities, the commission expects that local authorities (including representatives of the community) will exercise a decisive authority

Trends and cases

on the contents and organization of higher education. The local board of higher education, according to the proposals of the commission, should have the responsibility for the organization of social courses of higher education in the area, to meet the needs of the community as they arise. The need for broad availability of higher education is generally accepted. Opinion is divided on the means to be used. The six existing universities favour the model of education at a distance, in which a university has the responsibility for the provision of occasional (as opposed to regularly offered) courses in a large region of the country, using various technical devices and the tradition of adult education in study circles. (There are already some 20,000 participants in the study circles on the university level in spite of the tuition fees claimed by the educational associations that arrange them.) Others fear that such an organization will not be sufficiently sensitive to the widely varying requirements for education. They favour a more decentralized organization. This question will be settled as an integral part of the government bill on higher education.

Changes of employment patterns Some of the basic measures to be taken in order to promote recurrent education are within the sphere of the labour market. First, since the number of people moving from training courses to employment will increase, much greater resources for employment services will be necessary. Moreover, information will be needed on the educational backgrounds and career plans of new job applicants. Wherever possible, jobs will have to be adapted to the knowledge and background of new categories of workers. Difficult questions will arise concerning the security of employment of workers who leave their jobs for a period of study. Participation in recurring periods of study and training must not be restricted to the

successful workers that an enterprise may want to promote. The fundamental idea is that there is a lifelong right to education. This raises difficult questions about the selection of students for courses and study grants, of which we have very little experience so far. It is obvious, however, that the selection must not be a matter for the employer alone. The responsibility of society for financing the studies and for outreach activities has to be undertaken with due regard to the existing policies of the enterprises in this respect. It also has to take into account those large groups, unemployed or not, without a formal employer. The problem of how to reach women and engage them in studies and training is one of the most demanding issues in the development of recurrent education. The trade unions and the employers have negotiated the question of educational leave without reaching any agreement. A law is now being prepared that would grant every worker who has at least six months' employment with his actual employer the right to educational leave.

S e c o n d a r y school and r e c u r r e n t e d u c a t i o n YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

In 1972 a report was worked out in the Swedish Ministry of Labour (at that time part of the Ministry of the Interior) on the problems of youth employment. At the time, the rates of unemployment of youth from 16 to 24 was high. In the I96OS, the number of young unemployed averaged around 5,000, out of an annual of some IOO,OOO young job applicants. In 1971 and 1972, the registered unemployment of the young had trebled or quadrupled, and in addition, there were large numbers of nonregistered job applicants. The main reason for high unemployment was the low activity of the economy. However, the 519

Trends

and

cases

report identifies a number of structural causes such as the low level of training of job applicants, difficulties in the transition between training and jobs, a certain amount of mistakenly directed training, the flood of job seekers at the end of the school year, reluctance of some applicants to move from one area to another, attitudes towards industrial work, and young people's rising expectations about the quality or satisfactions of work. The report recommends a number of measures which could be taken or considered to improve the situation of young people on the labour market. These include: Compulsory outreach activities for youngsters who do not complete the comprehensive school, or do not go on to training in the upper secondary school or complete such training. More short vocational courses in upper secondary school, as a means of combating unemployment in times of economic recess. Increased opportunities for sandwich courses or part-time courses in upper secondary school. Other measures are in the field of labour market policy. The report may be regarded as the initiation of a long-term effort to set a national policy on youth employment, to be carried out jointly by the ministries of labour and of education.

Increased emphasis on education in secondary school The trend during the last few decades has been to make school education less specialized. There are few options or choices available in grades V I I - I X of the comprehensive school~ and these do not seriously influence the students' opportunities for further study. According to the curriculum of I969, the comprehensive school does not prepare students for specific iobs. The vocational lines of the upper secondary school include more general sub520

jects (Swedish, English and social sciences are compulsory, elective subjects may be added) than the old vocational school. The technical and economic lines of the upper secondary school are less specialized in their job preparation and now give more time to general subjects than formerly. The reasons for this trend towards general studies are well known; the wish to avoid social selection by early streaming, the need to give everybody a solid preparation for life as a citizen in a democratic and complicated society, as well as a basis for further studies. The force of such arguments is vigorously felt in the following plea by Lena Johansson in the report cUtbildning, Resonerande Del' (Education, Arguments) by the Low Income Commission in z97o. If critical schooling gives you the ability to question what is accepted as self-evident and justified in our present society and its institutions, and the ideological notions that give legitimacy to it, then it can be argued that the underprivileged would be the ones most helped by critical schooling. . . . But how can we explain that on the upper secondary level, the pupils in the academic courses get critical schooling, but not the pupils who take vocational courses? The latter are more likely to come into situations where they have reasons to question the justice of social institutions, but they will have considerably less suitable tools for such questioning than students that pursue critical studies. In the perspective of recurrent education, the right of every citizen to be prepared, in youth, for future studies is emphasized. The principles for admission to higher education already agreed on are important in this context. Also, the development of new kinds of higher education programmes may contribute to a shift in the content of preparation for future studies. The practical vocational training will in itself prepare for higher education, provided that it is problemoriented and not merely provision of technical skills.

Trends and cases

The vocationalization of secondary school

The trend towards more general studies in the secondary school, outlined in the preceding section, was by and large supported by all the political parties. Its implementation has not, however, been without problems. There has been some criticism that both in grades VII-IX and in the upper secondary school some pupils have not been sufficiently motivated to take an active part in the study of the general subjects of the curriculum. This may in part be due to the academic way in which these subjects have sometimes been taught. Today the schools are determined to discover improved patterns of teaching and learning. The report of the SIA Commission, published in August r974, suggests far-reaching reforms of the organization of school work. In the long-term policy discussions, there are other criticisms of the trend toward general studies. The strategy of recurrent education has two aspects: one is that everybody should have a real chance to return to their studies after an interruption for work or other reason; the other is that education should prepare young people for a meaningful job or career. If it is important for young people to experience work and its conditions, then school education must provide opportunities for young people to gain that experience. The concept of including some vocational training in the academic programmes of the upper secondary school was brought forward by the I968 educational commission both in a pamphlet for public debate in I97 o and, as a long-term policy, in its final report (I973). So far, this idea has not had very strong support. There are several reasons for this. One is that the upper secondary school has been reformed so recently and is still struggling with the initial difficulties. Another is that the central problems of the commission reports mentioned above were those of higher education. A third reason may be the difficulty of the task, but to introduce direct job training into the academic

programmes of the upper secondary school is a break with century-old traditions. Not only would it oppose the tradition of the 'learned school', but it would also mean a kind of shallow vocational preparation which may seem repugnant to the heirs of the traditional vocational school. Still, there is a conviction among leading educationists that the crucial questions for the future are to be found in the education and training of the x6- to I9-year-olds. Labour market problems, the problems of social selection in education, and internal school problems point in that direction. No plan has been put forward to show how these ideas can be implemented. Some traditional policy issues, however, should be examined from new perspectives. The risks of early specialization are still there. In the conception of recurrent education, however, maximum breadth of youth education and gradual specialization is not the only remedy. Another way is the following, which offers breadth not only through the generalized concepts of abstract teaching but by an interplay between practical experience and studies in broad fields: an upper secondary course which prepares for a job and for further studies is followed by a few years of gainful employment. After this, a short or a long period of study, not necessarily with the same occupational content as the previous work and training. The later period of study may be less specialized than the earlier ones. It must be admitted that this idea of a change of occupation for its own sake is not easily accepted by general opinion. Only in the case of teacher training does there seem to be a fairly broad consensus that experience from another job would be an asset to the student. It is hard to believe that the same would not be true more generally in a world where team-work and broad individual or group responsibility seem to be the most promising trends towards a more humane organization of work. 52I

Trends and cases

Another issue, on which the idea of recurrent education has changed public opinion is the question of the length of compulsory schooling. For quite a few young people, the most natural thing to do in adolescence is to take a job. In the pattern of recurrent education, this is encouraged rather than discouraged, provided the young people have a minimum preparation for the job and for adult life. This sets a limit, admittedly not very well defined, for the length of compulsory schooling. The problem of how to give to everybody sufficient training and education for more difficult tasks has then to be resolved by actively encouraging people to go back to further study. It is understood that society should grant the right to study for some years beyond the age of compulsory school education.

S c h o o l and c a r e e r g u i d a n c e

Study and vocational orientation within the school require far-reaching co-ordination and co-operation between different school levels and different organizations and individuals. School and career guidance is a co-operative effort in which virtually all personnel within the school should participate. There are obvious difficulties in giving each student a basis for unprejudiced choices, based on thorough knowledge of himself, and of the world of work. Formerly, there was a special category of teachers (career teachers) who were responsible for guidance in the comprehensive schools. In the upper secondary schools, personnel from the labour market authorities provided information on careers, on a part-time basis, in co-operation with the regular school staff. This led to difficulties in co-ordination. Moreover, seen from the schools' point of view, the programme was given a low priority of importance by the labour market authorities. Since I969, direct vocational preparation is no longer a part of the curriculum of the compre522

hensive school. The majority of pupils of the comprehensive school go on to further studies, immediately or after a period of gainful employment. Consequently, orientation towards further study, and the relations between training and the labour market have gradually come to play a more important part than vocational guidance in a narrow sense of the word. In the early I97os, a new method of providing educational and vocational orientation in school was introduced. It was put into effect in all communities from I July I974. Personnel with a common core of background training, but with a wide variety of practical experience (called study and vocational orientation consultants), work with the labour market authorities, with units of adult education, and in the upper secondary and comprehensive schools. The intention is to stress, by such an organization, the continuity in teaching, pupil care and the programmes of guidance. The career teacher system may be retained in comprehensive schools during an experimental period, parallel to the new system. After a certain time, the new organization will be evaluated and referred to parliament. The training of the study and vocational orientation (SVO) consultants consists of a oneyear course at a school of education. The admission requirements include at least one year of practical work experience, at least six months of which should be outside school. Most of those accepted have a background of university studies in the behavioural sciences. Every community receives a grant for at least one study and vocational orientation consultant in its school. If the number of pupils in grades VI-IX and upper secondary school exceeds 8oo, more than one consultant is authorized. In school, the SVO consultants have both pedagogical and administrative functions. They take part in the instruction and in skills training, and they do individual group counselling. They are responsible for the SVO co-operation in the

Trends and cases

school, and for the contacts between the school and the world of work. It is almost impossible to assess the efficiency of this new service, not only because it has been in action for such a short time. The goals for study and vocational orientation are very general in character, and the effects of guidance can never be isolated from other influences. Some observations have been made about the SVO services in some communities. It appears that some of the problems which this new service was designed to solve still exist. The number of consultants is considered to be too small; the relations between the SVO consultants and other school activities are sometimes not satisfactory; the relations between the school

and the labour market authorities must be improved. The teachers need to know more about study and vocational orientation and its aims. It should, however, be admitted that the whole field of guidance is a very difficult one and that performance will always fall short of ambitions. Even at the pre-primary and primary levels of education, there have been demands that the children should be oriented towards the world of work and their eventual participation in adult activities. Career development is a gradual process, and should indeed begin in the childhood period. The development of new services in Sweden, described above, is an effort to meet more effectively these long-recognized needs.

P o s t - g r a d u a t e education in Bulgaria Chrism Boutzev

The age-old distinction between the two periods of man's life--study and work--is disappearing: it is now incumbent on every individual to continue studying throughout his life, so as to add to his knowledge, widen his cultural horizons and improve his professional qualifications. The rate of development today and the problems associated with it have given birth to the idea of lifelong education, an aspect of the educational system at present which is bound to continue in the future. We regard lifelong education, in the first

place, as a requirement of present-day society; it is part of the State's educational strategy and policy, and its principles are fundamental to the organization of teaching in schools at all levels. In Bulgaria, the principles of lifelong education are observed in solving all methodological problems relating to the organizational structure of the educational system, the planning of education and teaching procedures.

Christo Boutzev (Bulgaria). Professor, engineer and candidate in technical science. Head specialist on the State Committee for Sdence, Technical Progress and Higher Education. Numerous publications on electronics, the organization of higher education, lifelong education and post-university training.

In a country like Bulgaria, whose economy and culture are expanding rapidly and which is eager to increase its rate of development in the future, and has plans for doing so, the problems of public education have a direct bearing on social and

Social and economic prerequisites of p o s t - g r a d u a t e education

523