In two fields - education, and letters and the arts - the period 1923-40 is a crucial one during which certain reforms were proposed and attempted. The compaign to confront the problems of education mirrored the desire of the Greek state as a whole for overall regulation in educational matters, and it was aimed at preparing schools to deal with the socio-economic needs of the country. The reforms applied included reconstruction of the educational system, changes to the curriculum, the establishment of a new type of vocational school , concern for the training of teachers, and the erecting of school buildings. The campaign met with a lot of resistance and a leading figure in the Society for Education, Dimitris Glynos, predicted the programme would have limited effectiveness. The circulation of reading materials increased and many new literary and artistic magazines appeared familiarizing the Greek public with new trends, while many Greek prose writers appeared for the first time. Translations of foreign writers and poets appeared, while popular fiction continued to have a wide public. Of course, the access that the Greek public had to the printed word is governed by one decisive factor: according to the census of 1928, illiteracy in citizens over the age of eight years old was approaching 40.72% of the total population, 23.47%of which were men and 57.97% were women.