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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Yugoslavia Index
Secondary education also improved noticeably in the postwar
decades. Between 1947 and 1981, the number of students in
secondary and postsecondary schools rose more than sixfold, and
by 1984 more than 90 percent of the pupils who completed primary
school continued their education on the secondary level. In 1989
the secondary school student-teacher ratio in Yugoslavia overall
reached 15:1, although the ratio varied by region.
A comprehensive curriculum reform in 1974 offered students a
choice of postprimary instruction paths. The motivation for
reform was to contribute more skilled workers to Yugoslav
industry. The reform basically combined separate college
preparatory and vocational schools into "giant" standard
secondary schools in which the first two years of instruction
were uniform for all students. In the third year, students were
expected to choose a general career path from college preparatory
and vocational options.
Critics complained bitterly that the new curriculum failed to
prepare students adequately to meet the country's needs.
University officials asserted that students spent too much time
in vocational instruction; enterprise directors complained that
the vocational track still did not prepare enough young people to
fill skilled jobs. Critics on both sides called for a return to
completely separate four-year college-preparatory and vocational
schools. In 1990 another round of reforms was imminent, but
Yugoslavia's economic woes delayed funding. Between 1977 and
1984, spending on education had already fallen from 5.9 percent
to 3.5 percent of total national income.
The amount of secondary school instruction conducted in
minority languages rose rapidly after World War II. In 1945 only
4,233 students received such instruction; in 1985-1986 the number
was 85,892 (see
table 8, Appendix). In addition to
Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian, secondary school
instruction was conducted in Albanian, Bulgarian, Czechoslovak,
Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, Slovak, and Turkish. Government
officials hoped that increasing the average education level in
Kosovo would reduce future demographic growth in the region.
According to the 1981 census, 55.5 percent of Kosovo's population
over age fifteen had completed elementary school; this figure was
only 5.2 percent in 1953 (see
table 9, Appendix).
Data as of December 1990
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