3. Evening courses. Cultural associations.
An essential aim of the government was to help the Bulgarians from Macedonia to participate in the overall Bulgarian cultural life. The schools offered also evening courses for studying the Bulgarian Standard Language. They enrolled those people who had received their education during the period of Serbian occupation (1919-1941). A special textbook was published in 1941 in Sofia written by Asen Markov and Petar Lakov named : "Towards the Standard Bulgarian Language. Grammar, speech and writing". The other aim of those courses was to introduce the new Bulgarian citizens with the Bulgarian legislation and government. This form of education was practised in the villages only in the Winter season (November 15 - March 31) in order to avoid any disturbance to the agricultural works [35].
Special courses were organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1941 in all populated areas in Vardar Macedonia were opened free courses for housekeeping and hygiene. The state budget provided 100.000 lv. for their accomplishment [36]. Evening courses in various crafts were established as early as in 1941; they were managed by the Commerce and Industry Chambers. Their number rose in 1942 to 24 including slipper-maker's, building and carpenter's, furniture-carpenter's, welding with oxygen, tobacco-technical, baker's, electro-fitting's, graphic's, knitting on a machine, water-installation's, photograph's, barber's and hairdresser's, bricklayer's, milkman's, stonemason's, confectionery and other courses [37]. In 1942 municipalities and regional police services organized courses for municipal policemen. Sport and red cross associations were found as well as the female charity societies. Music and dance groups for authentic folk flourished.
First cultural clubs and 'popular universities' in Macedonia were inaugurated in 1941. Their function was to encourage the amateur art activities of the emergent nation. Such cultural clubs were found in Prilep, Kavadartzi, Skopie, Negotino, Kumanovo, Veles, Dratchevo, Shtip, Strumitza, Kotchani and in other areas.
On prime-minister's order a new 'people's library' was founded in Skopie on September 1, 1941 consisting of more than 200.000 volumes in two departments: for Bulgarian and for foreign languages. In 1942 two other departments were created: archive and the child section [38]. Meanwhile the authorities established thousands of local libraries attached to schools or municipalities.
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35.Tselokupna Bulgaria, issue 277, Skopje 1942.
36. Ibidem, issue 118, Skopje 1941.