School year starts in Serbia

The Beta news agency quoted comments from the Education Ministry which specified that some 750,000 children will be starting the new school year. “Elementary schools in Serbia will have some 508,000 students in the 2024/25 school year, including some 64,000 first graders and there will be some 240,000 high school students,” the ministry told Beta.

The ministry said that the maximum number of students in each classroom has been reduced from 30 to 28 in grades 1 and 9 “to raise the quality of classes, efficiency and optimize the education system”.

According to teachers and education experts, the biggest problem for parents at the start of the school year is financial because school books and other supplies have to be bought despite promises that books will be provided for free. Most parents turn to street vendors to buy second-hand textbooks which are cheaper than store-bought new books.

Trade Minister Tomislav Momirovic said he was surprised by how much some things cost. “A backpack cost 3,000 Dinars (1 Euro – 117 Dinars). The pencil case price surprised me … I paid about 2,000 Dinars for it,” he said.

The quality of the schools also differs across the country with schools in some rural areas seeming decrepit and requiring renovation while schools in cities are well maintained. An extreme example is the elementary school in the village of Provo whose main building has been declared unsafe forcing teachers to move their students into auxiliary buildings which do not have adequate toilets.

A lot of schools also don’t have gyms.