Serbia

The education system in Serbia has been shaped in large measure by that of its predecessor, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and by Serbian and federal laws passed in the 1990s. Educational policy in Serbia is determined by the federal government together with the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Serbia, with cooperation in some areas from international actors, such as the European Union, UN agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. At the turn of the millennium the Ministry of Education was concentrating its efforts on making education and the management of education more democratic, improving Serbia's secondary level vocational education institutions and programs, and strengthening adult education and training. Significant efforts also were being directed toward repairing schools damaged in the 1999 NATO bombing campaign and toward outfitting schools with necessary teaching materials and equipment. According to a May 2001 publication of the European Commission's European Training Foundation, Serbia's Minister of Education sought to accomplish the following strategic goals:

1. Introduce a new model of governance based on the active involvement of a large number of actors in the decision-making process and the implementation of policy.
2. Instill radical change in the decision-making and policy-development culture within the institution by mobilizing external expertise, working in tandem with other actors, and using information on the actual state of the education system and its needs.
3. Ensure a better relationship between the Ministry and schools by shifting the focus from controlling schools to directing and supporting their performance.

Short term goals of the Ministry in 2001 were to create a more efficient internal structure within the Ministry and to develop an educational reform strategy that could accomplish three goals: make schools more democratic bodies fostering democratic education, use education to promote and achieve social and economic development, and match secondary vocational education and adult education to Serbian labor market needs.

In 1991 the literacy rate in Serbia was estimated to be about 98.3 percent in urban areas and 95.2 percent in rural areas, with an estimated 92 percent of rural women literate. Compulsory education in Serbia includes the 8 grades of primary school that are typically attended by students 7 through 14 years of age. Serbian has been the principal language of instruction in Serbia's schools, almost all of which are public. Other languages of instruction include Hungarian, Albanian, Slovak, and Romanian at the elementary and secondary levels. In the 1998-1999 school year, 37,594 primary pupils and 8,867 secondary students were taught in minority languages or in bilingual schools in Serbia.

In 1997 about 32.2 percent of the population in the FRY was of school age—that is, between 3 and 24 years of age. The 1997-1998 gross enrollment ratio for Serbia at the primary level was 98.4 percent. In 1999-2000 about 48.6 percent of the students who were enrolled in Serbia's basic education programs were girls; 50.4 percent of upper secondary students (both general and vocational) were female, as were 53 percent of the students at the tertiary level that year. Nearly 1.3 million Serbs were enrolled in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions out of Serbia's total population of about 8 million, excluding Kosovo and Metohia for whom educational statistics are generally excluded in the European Training Foundation Montenegro's January 2001 report.

Participation in preschool programming is optional in Serbia. However, 1,661 public kindergartens existed in 1999-2000. Basic education is divided into two stages: lower primary, covering grades 1-4 for children ages 7 through 10, and upper primary, covering grades 5-8 for children aged 11 through 14. Pupils in grades 1-8 numbered 731,427 in 1999-2000 in Serbia, but the gross enrollment ratio for basic education (the free, compulsory, first 8 years of schooling) is not available for that year.

Upper secondary schooling in Serbia includes either 4 years of general education for students 15 through 18 years of age or 2, 3, or 4 years of vocational education for students starting at age 15. Specialized secondary schools also exist to provide four years of education in the arts, music, or ballet. Tertiary education is provided through university faculties and art academies for four to six years or through postsecondary schools where courses usually last two to three years. Tertiary education typically begins for students at age 19. Specialized university studies are also available that last an additional one to two years beyond undergraduate education and lead to a diploma with a professional title. Post-graduate studies leading to magisterial (Master's) degrees last two years, and doctoral degree programs require three years of postgraduate study.

Schools in Kosovo were heavily damaged during the NATO bombing raids in 1999. In a survey taken jointly by UNICEF and other nongovernmental organizations just after the NATO military campaign to halt Serb aggression against Kosovar Albanians, an estimated 37 percent of 784 schools in Kosovo were found to have been completely destroyed or in very bad condition. Water and sanitation facilities in many, if not most, schools in Kosovo also stood in dire need of repair or construction. Additionally, many school buildings had almost no equipment or textbooks. One educational expert wrote in a European Training Foundation report in December 2000 that "initially there was an overwhelming need for repair and reconstruction and as well, supplies in order to meet the immediate aim of ensuring that children returned to school at the start of the 1999-2000 school year." Technological equipment—and school equipment in general—was sorely missing from Kosovo's schools at the start of the new millennium. By January 2000, some 362 school buildings out of a total of 800 that had needed significant repairs were completely repaired and back in operation, while 281 additional buildings were still under repair. Largely through international contributions, basic furnishings and supplies were provided to schools in Kosovo so that education could be restarted after the NATO bombing attacks.

The structure of the educational system in Kosovo closely resembles the educational system in Serbia, although vocational education at the secondary level normally lasts three or four years. Additionally, the greater involvement of international nongovernmental organizations, during the late 1990s and afterwards, in Kosovo rather than in Serbia has enriched program offerings at the preschool level and elsewhere in the educational system to a greater extent. For example, since 1998 the Open Society Institute's Step by Step program has been offered in Kosovo to expand the teaching methodologies of preschool teachers and to encourage more democratic participation of teachers, parents, children, and community members in the educational process. Additionally, Step by Step in Kosovo has tended to the needs of minority children such as the Roma, impoverished children, and children with disabilities, as well as to children displaced by war. By the time the NATO bombing began in Kosovo in March 1999, Step by Step had already supported 17 preschool classrooms in preschool and primary institutions, reaching more than 1,000 young children. Following a hiatus due to the military strife, Step by Step recommenced its activities in Kosovo and planned to offer faculty in the two main teacher training institutions in Kosovo specialized training beginning in the year 2000. With the likely injection of substantial educational assistance from the international community into Serbia beginning in the second half of 2001, Serbia, too, will benefit from wider collaborations with international partners.