The school system in Serbia

 Hello class today I am going to tell you something about the education in Serbia. I was
there in primary school and gymnasium prior to moving to Germany.
 Education in Serbia is really important( primary school is compulsory) and it takes place
under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological
Development of the Republic of Serbia.
 Many great scientists studied in Serbia –Nikola Tesla, Mihajlo Pupin, Milutin
Milankovic…

 Structure:It dates back to the 12th century, and today is divided into :preschool
(kindergarten),primary, secondary,higher education (university faculties and art
academies and doctor studies)
 Prior to the implementation of the Bologna Declaration (until 2006), there was also post
diplomatic education, currently within the second and third levels of higher education.
 Preschool is attended in the year of enrollment in the first grade of primary school.
 It lasts at least four hours a day and at least six months.
 There students normally learn about letters, numbers and often English.
 After that, students take an aptitude test for primary school enrollment.
 Children usually start school at 7 or 8 years old.

 Professional qualifications level and types of education:

 I degree - lower grades of primary school (4 years per degree; 4 years in total)
 II degree - upper grades of primary school (4 years for the degree; 8 years in total)
 III degree – three or four years craft school (3 years for the degree; 11/12 years in total)
 IV degree - four-year specialized school (4 years for the degree; 12 years in total)
 V degree - four-year gymnasium school (4 years for the degree; 12 years in total)
 VI-1 degree - two-year higher school (2-3 years for the degree; 14/15 years in total)
 VI-2 degree - three-year vocational studies (3 years per degree; 15 years in total)
 VI-2 degree - three-year academic studies (3 years per degree; 15 years in total)
 VII-1 degree - four-year undergraduate studies (4 years per degree; 16 years in total)
 VII-2 degree - five or four-year undergraduate studies + one-year specialist studies (5 / 6
years for degree-17 years)
 VII-3 degree - six-year basic studies in medicine or veterinary medicine (6 years per
degree; 18 years in total)
 VIII degree - master's degree (master of science, MR) (2 years for the degree; 19 years )
 IX degree - doctorate (doctor of science, DR) (1 year for the degree; 20 years in total)
 My school in Serbia, Belgrade:
 Named after Stefan Decanski (Serbian king and Saint in church)
 Founded in 1960 in Belgrade
 Here are some pictures of my school inside

 School year and holydays-The school year for primary and secondary schools lasts nine
and a half months, except for students in the eighth grade of primary school and the
final grade (third or fourth) of secondary school, which lasts one month shorter.
 It begins on the first working day of September and ends on Friday the second full week
of June.
 The school year is divided into two semesters, and the semesters into a total of four
quarters (high school classification period).
 During the school year, primary and secondary school students have five holidays,
periods when they do not go to school, intended for vacation:
 November (quarter and armistice day in the first world war ;lasts 3-7 days),
 January (semester / New Year / Christmas; lasts 10-12 days),
 February( Statehood day of Serbia; lasts 2 weeks),
 April (quarter / Easter; lasts 5-7 days)
 May holidays (Labor Day; lasts two days).
 Between school years, students go on summer vacation, which lasts two and a half
months, is three for students who enroll in high school, and four for those who enroll in
college.
 Also students are always free for three days for their familiy slava(,,glory“)-also know as
a krsna slava is is an old folk tradition of celebrating a domestic protector/family saint.
 The school year for students begins a month later, in October.
 It is divided into two semesters, which begin about a month later than the primary and
secondary school semesters, and are divided into exam deadlines, which are held
depending on the faculty.

 School organization-Students are divided into classes min fifteen for primary and
secondary schools.
 Normally 30 people are in one class.
 A number of schools have a student parliament and / or peer team.
 The Student Parliament proposes improvements and school events to the school
principal, while a peer team, assisted by a school psychologist, helps students solve
school problems, primarily violence, within UNICEF's School Without Violence program.
 In schools without a peer team, all the work is on the psychologist and the school
authorities. High schools have a pedagogue instead of a psychologist.
 Parents organize in the parents' council, which proposes excursions, oversees activities
closely related to student finances, and discusses and draws conclusions about events
important to the school.
 He also takes responsibility for the student parliament if he is not present at a particular
school and works with theachers and the director of the school.
 Foreign citizens and stateless persons are enrolled in schools in the same way as citizens
of the Republic of Serbia.
 The only difference is, apart from obtaining certain documents, that they have the
opportunity to attend free Serbian language classes before going to school, in case they
don't already know it, so that they can understand the lectures at school.
 In addition, if the student is from a European country, he / she has the right to attend
classes in his / her mother tongue and culture

 School textbooks-Every subject, except the physical one, has its own textbook.
 Pupils procure textbooks in accordance with the choice of the subject teacher.
 They buy them in bookstores, although buying used books from those who have
completed a certain grade is common.
 Free books are only available to students who were unable to obtain them.
 However in the first grade Serbia pays for all school supplies for all students.

 Student assessment(Grades)-The student assessment system in Serbia is numerous,

and contains grades from 1, for the least knowledge, to 10, for the greatest knowledge.
In primary and secondary schools, grades range from 1 to 5:
 Insufficient (1) - grade that requires correction, because it is not passable
 Sufficient (2) - grade for basic knowledge with instructions from the lecturer
 Good (3) - grade for correct reproduction of learned content
 Very good (4) - grade for clear explanation and comparison of materials
 Excellent (5) - grade for creating a knowledge system and logical connection of content
 Higher schools and universities evaluate students with grades from 5 to 10, where 6 is
the lowest passing grade, which students must receive in order to continue their
education.
 Also all grades are written by a teacher directly into a giant book with a page for every
student called ,,dnevnik“ and from these grades is than made the final note for every
subject. Each class has one and the teachers are the only ones who can touch it-after
each class teacher brings dnevnik to a teacher of a subject who follows..
 At the end of each semester the grades are written in a little book called djacka knjizica
which is also used as a school card. Many sports teams outside of school actually need
this book to see if the student has good grades or not,and if he can play for their team.
 At the end of each year the student become their end certificate(grades from both
semesters).
 There are also effort notes which grade students behvior in class and outside of class.
They are also from 1-5 and are counted ecually with other subjects.With a grade 1 at the
end of any semester student is expelled from school.
 At the end of the educational cycle, the student who at the end of the school year has
completed the highest grades (fives) in all subjects from fifth to eighth grade of primary
or secondary school as well as participation in at least one district competition, received
a diploma "Vuk Stefanovic Karadzic" ", Shortens Vuk's diploma, which has been awarded
since 1966.
 Every school awards also a student of the generation (8th grade primary or 4th grade
secondary school) who gets to compere to every generation student of every school and
after that it would be decided who is this years best student in the city.

 Primary school-Like preschool, primary education is compulsory.

 Primary school lasts eight years and is divided into two periods: first cycle of primary
education (1st to 4th grade) and second cycle of primary education (5th to 8th grade)
 In the lower grades, students are randomly divided into classes, and have only one
lecturer - a teacher and one classroom for all subjects.
 The only exceptions are English and religious education classes, for which students have
special teachers.
 At the end of the first cycle, students also get a physical education teacher. Students
also have grades for governance(effort grades), which are also part of the testemony
 Pupils have the following subjects:
 mathematics
 mother tongue (Serbian)
 Serbian as a non-mother tongue (for those whose mother tongue is not Serbian)
 English language (first obligatory foreign language)
 Arts
 musical culture
 Physical Education
 the world around us (in the first and second grade) similar to biology
 nature and society (in the third and fourth grade) geography and history together
 compulsory elective (religious education or civic education)
 Others (beautiful writing , folk tradition, Nature keepers, Informatics )
 In higher grades, students receive special teachers for each subject, and classes are held
in subject classrooms.
 The following new subjects:
 from 5th grade: biology, geography, history, technical and information education, other
foreign language(usually French, Russian or german), sports, compolsory sports (each
year a new sport),informatics, religious education/civic education,cooking
 from 6th grade: physics
 from 7th grade: chemistry

 Extracurricular activities
 Excursions are one of the extracurricular activities organized by schools, and they are
usually one-day or two-day visits to places throughout Serbia, and in the last grades of
high school in the rest of Europe.
 They are organized by the school, and exclusively primary and secondary schools.
 Additional classes are organized for students with a desire to learn more about a
particular topic, participate in competitions, receive scholarships, and prepare for
further education.
 There are also many outschool organization choose most talented students and help
them reach their goals and participate In many contests(I was a part of one as well).
 Fil out classes are organized primarily for students with poor grades for each subject. Its
goals are to help students "catch up" with the material, while learning a lesson not only
for the upcoming test, but also memorizing the main part of the lesson for a long time.
 It can also be attended by students with higher grades, especially as preparation for a
test or rehearsal.
 Primary and secondary schools also organize sections, primarily a journalism, art and
drama section, and chors, first aid courses, art courses, journalistic courses, chess…and
many more
 Big festivals at my school were saint Sava day,the school day,the outum festival,the
easter festival,science festival,nature cleaning day and the day of swapping roles with
teachers(students are teachers for a day...)
 Here are some examples where we have traveled...

 Rules: Pauses:1) Beetween each class there is a 5 min pause, and there can not be more
than 7 classes a day(not including extraculicuras) 2)There are one or two big pauses
(20 min long ),students usually eat at this time (for all students after second and after
fourth class).Shiffts:1) There are to shiffts-one week students have morning shifft
(classes from 8.00-max 14.00h) and the week after that afternoon schifft (classes from
14.00h -20.ooh) and than the cycle repeats.
 Exams:1) There are no unexpected tests like in Bayern and Schulaufgaben don’t exist
(every test is 45min long for each subject and its graded equally),but there are punishing
tests or oral exemintations for bad behaving students.
2) Oral exemintations are often and usually about 25 min long and as important as
exams.

 Before the class starts:1) Before teacher comes to the classroom all students are
standing in a straight row based on height in front of a classroom waiting for the teacher
to come 2)Singing a school hymne/anthem 3) The sitting order is made by height and at
the school table are always sitting boy and one girl.

 Sports class: 1) Makeup isn t allowed in sport class 2)The students are coming to the
class clean and with fresh,not wrinkled clothes. 3)Everybody has to wear a white t-shirt
without any logos/signs and black shorts/sweats/leginngs+white sport shoes 3)Long
nails,any kind of makeup or jewlery are forbidden.4) Students have 2 minutes to change
into their normal clothes and in the chaninging room all of the clothes must be neatly
folded. 5)Everbody has to participate in a running day 2x month

 Other classes:1)The use of calculator or books of formulas are strongly forbidden.2)The

use of mobile phone at school ist allowed, just not in class3)If you want to say
something in class you must raise to fingers (like a peace sign)4)Students should always
write in cyrillic font and with a pencil (ugly handwriting strongly punished)5)If the
student isn’t behaving properly,the teacher has a right to kick the student out of the
class 5) all of the students notes in notebooks are graded.

 Entrance and final exam-When a student finishes eighth grade, he or she can choose
whether to pursue education.
 If yes there is a final exam.
 The final exam for primary school students is mandatory.
 its called small prom(big prom is after 12 years of education)and its always in June.
 It consists of a test in mathematics, Serbian and a combined test
 Thus, it is possible to get a maximum of 70 points based on success in primary
school(each year student has had perfect grades, in every subject a grade 5 and the
effort grade was always 5)
 The combined test contains questions from natural and social material - biology, history,
physics, geography and chemistry.
 In addition to the final one, an entrance exam is organized for students who want to
enroll in special courses - special education, Mathematical High School, Philological High
School, bilingual classes, ballet school, music school, art school.
 Students write after that a list of secondary schools where they want to apply(the top
gold 20 schools) and hope to get in desired school.
 Namely, before enrolling in high school, students fill out wish lists in which they write in
turn what they want to enroll in (maximum 20 different directions).
 Based on the number of points, students are assigned to high schools
 Schools choose students with bigger scores over ones with lower and take limited
amount of students.
 For talented students it is also possible to do this exam an year eaarlier.
 Bonus points from competitions can be added to the maximal score(score above 100
poinst also).
 The small prom is seen as a turning point in education of every student and is always
celebrated with a ball and many big parties which are organized at school.
 The students should relax the whole month before exam(relaxed may) and and there is
always the traditional celebration of 31st april –the last school day-where students wear
special t shirts,celebrate with music and all the school classmates.
 This can also be a very sad time for students because its a last time with their teachers
and classmates(usually strong conntections –there is never a change of teacher or
students of one class-together for 8 years)

 High school is the third part of education in general and the first part of non-compulsory
education in Serbia.
 Here are two types of high schools - high schools and vocational schools.
 Students in real high schools/gymnasiums choose the direction that determines the
scope of material from certain subjects. Most high schools have a natural-mathematical
and a socio-linguistic major. However, there are other fields, such as general, computer
science, philology, and many others.
 A new subject in grammar schools is a third foreign language - Latin, a traditional
pronunciation of Western style, while philological grammar schools also offer ancient
Greek or Chinese. Other new subjects which I had were media analysing, logic,
psycology, philosophy,applied sciences ,literature…
 Two special gymnasiums are the Mathematical Gymnasium, which enrolls students from
the age of 12 (seventh grade of primary school) and higher, philological gymnasiums,
which offer specialized education in languages, as well as sports gymnasiums, with
special emphasis on sports military gymnasium, aero-plane gymnasium etc. In Belgrade
specificly there are about 15 core gymnasiums and they are all very different.
 In order to get into a gymnasium you have to have more than 90 poinst on the final
exams and for some highschools you need even more. For example 13. Belgrade
Gymnasium(96) and Mathematical(100).
 Deferences to primary school-new people,new theachers,new school building...