Education in Serbia is divided into preschool (predškolsko), primary school (osnovna škola), secondary school (srednja škola) and higher education levels. It is regulated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) finds that Serbia is fulfilling only 88.9% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to education based on the country's level of income. HRMI breaks down the right to education by looking at the rights to both primary education and secondary education. While taking into consideration Serbia's income level, the nation is achieving 84.7% of what should be possible based on its resources (income) for primary education and 93.0% for secondary education.
History of education
The beginnings of education in Serbia date from 11th and 12th century with the establishment of schools at Roman Catholic monasteries in Titel and Bač in today's Vojvodina, which was then part of the Kingdom of Hungary. People were also educated in Serbian Orthodox monasteries like Sopoćani, Studenica and Patriarchate of Peć.
After the fall of medieval Serbian state, among newly established schools were Slavic and Latin schools. In 1778, Serbian primary school Norma was established in Sombor. In 1791, Gymnasium of Karlovci, the oldest Serbian gymnasium, was established.
During the First Serbian Uprising, Belgrade Higher School was established in 1808. In 1838, in Kragujevac, Liceum of Serbian Principality was established. It was moved to Belgrade in 1841. In 1863, it merged into the Belgrade Higher School. It had 3 faculties: philosophy, engineering and law. Later, it became the University of Belgrade.
University of Belgrade was established in 1905. After World War II, more universities were established, including University of Novi Sad (1960), University of Niš (1965), University of Pristina (1969), University of Montenegro (1974) and University of Kragujevac (1976). In 2006, the State University of Novi Pazar was established.
Historical system (prior to 2005)
Educational system
Before 2005, (the implementation of the Bologna Process and comprehensive educational reform), Serbia implemented the system from the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. Preschool education was optional and primary and secondary education were the same. As of school year 2005–2006, the previous Diploma visokog obrazovanja (Higher Education Diploma) has been equalized with Master's degree, and Magister with the two years of doctoral studies (one year until doctorate) (because of the same length). Quaternary education was abolished and its contents were moved to tertiary education.
Professional qualification
Historical system ranked students by professional qualification (stručna sprema). Those who graduated only from primary school were qualified as unqualified workers (nekvalifikovani radnik), while those who graduated gymnasium were semi-qualified workers (polukvalifikovani radnik).
Those with a professional high school degree had secondary professional qualification (srednja stručna sprema), those with a college ('higher school') degree had higher professional qualification (viša stručna sprema), while those with a university degree had high professional degree (visoka stručna sprema).
Degrees of professionality
Other than professional qualification ranking that indicated workers' ability to work, there also were degrees of professionality (stepen stručne spreme). Those who graduated gymnasiums had the IV degree (reserved for four-year professional schools). The degrees were:
I degree - Lower grades of primary school (4 years for degree; 4 years in total) II degree - Higher grades of primary school (4 years for degree; 8 years in total) III degree - Three-year professional school (3 years for degree; 11 years in total) IV degree - Four-year professional school (4 years for degree; 12 years in total) V degree - Four-year professional school (4 years for degree; 12 years in total) VI degree - College or Higher School (3 years for degree; 15 years in total) VII1 degree - University ( Visoko obrazovanje) (4-5 years for degree; 16-17 years in total) VII2 degree - Magistracy (2 years for degree; 19 years in total) VIII degree - Doctorate/PhD (1 year for degree; 20 years in total)
Compulsory Education
School Organization
Students are organized into classes (odeljenje) of at least 5 for preschools and at least 15 for primary and secondary schools.