First-graders are eagerly awaiting September 1, and the statistics relentlessly show that there are fewer and fewer of them every year. About 50,000 children were registered for enrollment through e-Government, although their number will probably be much higher when looking at the number of children born.
According to official statistics, the number of first-graders has decreased by almost 4,000 in the last ten years. Official statistics say that in the 2014/2015 school year, 66,276 students started school, while ten years later, on September 1, 2024, there were 62,327 new students.
Compared to one year earlier, that is, 2023, that is 189 fewer first-graders.
When looking at the total number of students in elementary schools, it is 58,137 lower in the ten-year period from 2014 to 2024, which is more than the entire population of Kraljevo, according to the 2022 census.
The number of students who will start first grade this school year is not known, as the Ministry of Education has not yet published official data on the number of enrolled children.
In June, RTS announced that, according to official data from the Office for Information Technology and e-Government, almost 50,000 appointments for enrollment were scheduled in Serbia.
However, this number is drastically lower compared to the number of children born in 2018, who will make up the largest number of first-graders. According to the data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, 63,975 children were born in 2018, while the next year, 2019, 64,399 live births were recorded.
The 2025/2026 school year will enroll children born from March 1, 2018, to February 28, 2019.
The Union of Education Workers’ Unions recently pointed out the serious decline in the student population, announcing that this year there will be 9,115 vacant places in secondary schools and that the seriousness of the situation will be visible in a few years when it is time for the generation born in 2023 to start school.
Namely, in that year, only 60,813 children were born, which was the lowest number since the Second World War.
Mirjana Gašić from the Union of Education Workers’ Unions told N1 that due to the decreasing number of students, the union proposed that the number of students per class be considered for reduction, because otherwise, schools in smaller and rural areas will be threatened, and it is also possible that dual education profiles in secondary schools will be shut down.
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Source: N1, Photo: RINA