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 Before World War II the literacy rate in Romania ranked among the lowest in Europe. In 1930, at the time of the first official census, more than 38 percent of the population over seven years of age were considered illiterate--50 percent of the women and over 25 percent of the men in the entire population of about 18 million were unable to read or write. In rural areas, where most of the population lived, it was generally considered that the illiteracy rate was even higher. Much of the lack of literacy could be attributed to the fact that children of school age either were not enrolled in school or, if they were enrolled, did not attend classes regularly. There was also a fairly large percentage of children who left school without completing their studies or, having completed only the mandatory first four grades, relapsed into illiteracy in adult life.