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Basic Education is planning to open a number of vocational courses, first in the capital and then in the provinces, so that the people can learn various arts and crafts and become more useful members of society. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS The Department of Educational Publications has prepared, during the fourth year of the Plan, 120 different text books for elementary, secondary and high schools. The total circulation of these text-books runs into 3,000,000. This department has issued special text books to teach Persian to those living in the Pakhto-speaking areas of Afghanistan and Pakhto to those living in areas where chiefly Persian is spoken. The Department has also published two books on Pakhto literature and composition to help Persian-speaking students to master the language. Another important task of the Department of Educational Publications is that of translating and adapting foreign textbooks on various subjects for Afghanistan. It has prepared 135 different foreign text-books during the fourth year of the Plan. Of these 35 are to be printed in Kabul and the rest in Teheran. The Department has also taken a number of steps to publish a large number of supplementary and reference books, most of which are translations from foreign languages. As the printing facilities of the Ministry of Education are limited the Department of Educational Publications has managed to print seven school text-books by Gestetner. In order to keep all those concerned with education up-to-date the Department of Educational Publications publishes a monthly magazine called " Irfan," which reflects changes in the philosophy of education, illustrates Afghanistan's culture and social heritage and eminent educationalists and their views on various educational subjects. A similar magazine Reading Room in Kabul Public Library. is run in Pakhto language quarterly. A second purpose of this magazine, " Pohana," is to give information about Pakhto literature to Persian-speaking teachers. KABUL PUBLIC LIBRARY During the fourth year of the Plan Kabul Public Library was supplied with reading lights, equipment for the auditorium, more magazines for the display hall and up-to-date catalogues. Weekly symposiums in which high school boys and girls take part and express their views on various subjects were started during the fourth year of the Plan. The library also runs a fortnightly publication which keeps the people informed about various educational activities throughout the country. Last but not least was the opening of a separate reference library to help undergraduates with their research in specialised fields. FOREIGN RELATIONS The Department of Foreign Relations in the Ministry of Education is a liaison office which links the Ministry with various organisations abroad. It is constantly in contact with U.N.E.S.C.O. and thus keeps the Ministry informed of new developments in education in the world; it also arranges to buy text-books and equipment from abroad. During the fourth year of the Plan two U.N.E.S.C.O. experts came to Kabul to study the present and future programmes in Afghanistan and exchange views with the authorities. U.N.E.S.C.O. also provided three experts 15