with the government of West Germany to recruit South Korean nurses and miners as Gastarbeiter, which began in the final months of the Supreme Council. The costs were largely paid for by the South Korean government, with only their wages and some language services paid for by their West German employers. The Koreans in Germany were able to wire large sums of money to South Korea because their wages, much higher than available back home, greatly exceeded their subsidized living costs. The Gastarbeiter South Koreans have since been argued as a major cause of South Korea's rapid economic growth in the late 20th century. In 1970, the Saemaul Undong (New Community Movement) was introduced that set out to modernize the countryside and their economies, in response to the growing wealth disparity with the richer urban areas. The Saemaul Undong encouraged communalism and the government provided free materials for locals to develop some infrastructure themselves, rather than relying totally on government-built infrastructure. The government also provided electricity and running water to farmers, built paved roads, and replaced thatched roofs with tin roofs. Reportedly, Park could not stand the sight of thatched roofs on farmers' homes, which for him was a sign of South Korea's backwardness, and their replacement reflected a personal obsession rather than a practical necessity. Controversially, the Saemaul Undong movement actively pushed a type of iconoclasm towards the "superstitions" in rural South Korea, leading many practitioners of Korean shamanism to be harassed and centuries old Korean traditions to be destroyed. Education The Third Republic introduced several reforms to the South Korean educational system. In 1968, the entrance examinations for middle schools were abolished, placing all middle schools on an equal footing. Also in 1968, a Charter of National Education was adopted, emphasizing nationalism and anti-communism in education. The charter outlined four goals for education: national revitalization, creating self-reliant individuals, promulgating a new cooperative image of the nation, and supporting anti-communism. The Third Republic government sought to reduce the political activism among college students which had brought down the First Republic, and planned to disrupt the activism by increasing academic competition. The government allowed universities and colleges to recruit up to 130% of their graduation quotas, so that student activists would be forced to compete against one another in order to graduate. However, student activism continued at a high but reduced level despite these measures. International relations The Third Republic