The Soviet Union is attempting to deal with the sometimes conflicting problems of efficient vocationalization and provision of equal opportunity. From the first class of general school, Soviet children have several "labor" lessons a week. Main components of these lessons are practical skills, socialization for work, and vocational guidance. Education of all students is virtually the same until a choice, after the eighth class, of staying on at the general secondary school or going to a secondary vocational trade school (SPTU). Five categories of problems relating to vocational education have been highlighted: workers without necessary skills, dissatisfaction with the moral aspect of labor training, differing standards of training, low prestige of particular types of work, and unsatisfactory vocational guidance. The recent reform has addressed itself to such problems as emphasis on up-to-date labor knowledge and skills, simplification of school structure, increased enrollment in SPTUs, and simplification of ministerial control. Some problems are being attacked by attaching secondary schools to a base enterprise--a factory or farm in its local area--that will share the responsibility for labor training. Future problems are automation, the bureaucracy, shortage of agricultural labor, and raising the prestige of vocational education. (YLB)