Serbia

In 1999-2000 approximately 333,000 students were enrolled in secondary schools covering 4 grades of secondary education in Serbia (80,643 students, or about one-quarter, in general education programs and 251,916 students taking 2, 3, or 4 year vocational programs). The balance of general versus vocational secondary education in the federation as a whole differs significantly from the balance in Serbia. In 1996 about 55.7 percent of upper secondary students in FRY followed general courses of study while 44.3 percent were enrolled in vocational and technical programs. Upper secondary vocational education is directed toward training students along 543 educational profiles in 15 fields of work in Serbia. Thirty-one educational profiles involve 2 years of vocational or technical education, 133 require 3 years, and 148 require 4 years. Additionally, 231 specialist profiles can be followed after 2 years of work experience.

In the 1999-2000 academic year, secondary schools in Serbia numbered 126 general education schools and 311 vocational schools, all of them public, as well as 2 private schools offering general secondary programs. With 24,603 teachers providing secondary instruction, classes ranged from 10 students each in some villages to an average of 30 to 40 students per class in urban areas. The average student to teacher ratio at the secondary level for Serbia was 14. About 52.5 percent of secondary education students in the FRY were female in 1999-2000, but gender-related educational statistics for Serbia were not readily available; neither were reliable, secondary level, gross enrollment ratios available.

Curricular changes in Serbia in the late 1990s included the introduction of computer and informatics courses in all general education secondary schools. The need to revise history textbooks in the FRY was highlighted at the start of the new millennium by reform-minded individuals who found history instruction to be overly biased in a Serbian nationalist direction. Texts covering historical events, such as the war in Bosnia and the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had a decidedly Serbian ethnonationalist cast to them and stood in significant need of revision so that Balkan history would be more accurately portrayed and ethnically balanced.

In 1999-2000 a reported 80,661 students attended secondary schools in Kosovo, about 61 percent in vocational programs and 39 percent in general education programs. Fifty-four public schools provided secondary education and employed 3,094 teachers. The student to teacher ratio was 19 in the Albanian, Bosniac, and Turkish language stream and 8 in the Serbian language stream. In the 1999-2000 school year, secondary students in Kosovo general education programs numbered 31,318. Of these students 92.9 percent were ethnic Albanians, 5.1 percent were Serbs, and only about 1 percent each were Bosniacs or Turks. Very few Roma students (just five individuals) participated in the general track of secondary education in Kosovo. At the secondary vocational level, 49,343 students were enrolled, of which about 10 percent took the 3 year program and the rest followed 4 year courses of study. Of the vocational students, about 90.9 percent were Albanians, 7.8 percent were Serbs, and less than 1 percent each were Bosniacs, Turks, or Roma. Here, more Roma participated: 53 students. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the dropout rate in Kosovo at the secondary level was around 34 percent with a significantly higher dropout rate for female than for male students.