The United Teachers Union staged a protest in front of the Serbian government headquarters on Wednesday, demanding a reduction in the number of students and pupils in overcrowded classes.

Serbian schools customarily have classes numbering 30 or more schoolchildren. The teachers said the numbers should be reduced to 20 in line with the practice in other European countries. They said that the way schools organized classes during the pandemic showed that this is possible.

“This would help raise the quality of classes… Serbia has advocated improvement in education, that is a higher quality education system. No concrete measures have been introduced but demands have been made to teachers, students and parents,” Teachers Union spokesman Dobrivoje Marjanovic said.