By the late eighteenth century, however, a national revival grew in force, stimulated in large part by Father Paisi, a monk who wrote the first Bulgarian history, _The Slav-Bulgarian History_. This work and Father Paisi's teachings provided an incentive for the development of education in the country. From 1762 until liberation from Turkish rule in 1878, education made great strides. As the churches began to throw off the domination of the Greek Orthodox Church, more church schools staffed by monks and priests were established within the Bulgarian Orthodox Church framework.
Although the Greek educational system still predominated in the early part of the nineteenth century, complemented by a rising move toward the establishment of Bulgarian Orthodox Church schools, a movement toward secular education was initiated at this time. Secular subjects were introduced in the church schools, and communal schools were established. By 1834 the first primer in Bulgarian was written, based on a western European model, which established the basis for secondary education. In 1835 a wealthy merchant founded the first Bulgarian high school, and within the next ten years some fifty schools had been established.
At the time of liberation, however, over 90 percent of the population over school age was still illiterate. Only a small proportion--some 30 percent--of school-age children, those from seven to fourteen years of age, were actually attending schools. After the Turnovo Constitution (1879), however, which was enacted shortly after liberation, the educational system was revitalized (see ch. 8). Elementary education was made both free and compulsory. The state, the monarchy, and private individuals contributed to the goal of making education as nearly universal as possible.
In 1879 the three-year compulsory elementary school was introduced. By 1880 the period of compulsory education had been extended to four years. In 1888 the University of Sofia was founded. The university initially had seven faculties: history and philosophy; physics and mathematics; law; medicine; agronomy; theology; and veterinary medicine.
In 1910 the school system, which covered a twelve-year period, consisted of a four-year elementary school for children aged seven to eleven, a three-year _progymnasium_ for children from eleven to fourteen, and a five-year gymnasium for children from fourteen to eighteen. This system continued with only slight modification until the Communists took over in 1944. Also by 1910 both professional and vocational schools had been established providing a relatively high quality of education in such fields as agriculture, engineering, theology, commerce, art, and music. Although there were many students of higher education at the University of Sofia, about 10,000 students annually attended foreign universities, principally in Austria and Germany.