Start: In the 2025/2026 school year classes are held in 491 regular high schools (451 state and 40 private owned) and in 26 state schools for students with developmental disabilities. Regular secondary schools are attended by 225 639 students - 112 205 female students (49,7%) and 113 434 male students (50,3%). Schools for students with developmental disabilities are attended by 1 553 students, 520 female (33.5%) and 1 033 male (66.5%) students.
The largest number of students enroll and attend public schools (97.8%), and about 2% of students attend private schools. Private schools are mainly attended by children from the Serbia-North area (about 54% of students who chose a private school are from the Belgrade region and about 26% from the Vojvodina region), and about 19% of children from the Serbia-South area.
End: In the 2024/2025 school year, in 494 regular secondary schools, classes were attended by 227 276 students - 112 792 female students (49.6%) and 114 484 male students (50.4%). Schools for students with developmental disabilities (26) were attended by 1 547 students - 545 female students (35.2%) and 1 002 male students (64.8%).
Table 1. Students enrolled in upper secondary schools by sex, type of institution and region, the beginning of school 2025/2026
| Regular upper secondary schools | Schools for students with disabilities | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| total | females | males | total | females | males | ||
| REPUBLIC OF SERBIA | Public | 220775 | 109703 | 111072 | 1553 | 520 | 1033 |
| Private | 4864 | 2502 | 2362 | - | - | - | |
| SRBIJA – SEVER | Public | 114667 | 57033 | 57634 | 1080 | 370 | 710 |
| Private | 3920 | 1871 | 2049 | - | - | - | |
| Beogradski region | Public | 57046 | 28494 | 28552 | 484 | 153 | 331 |
| Private | 2636 | 1319 | 1317 | - | - | - | |
| Region Vojvodine | Public | 57621 | 28539 | 29082 | 596 | 217 | 379 |
| Private | 1284 | 552 | 732 | - | - | - | |
| SRBIJA – JUG | Public | 106108 | 52670 | 53438 | 473 | 150 | 323 |
| Private | 944 | 631 | 313 | - | - | - | |
| Region Šumadije i Zapadne Srbije | Public | 63009 | 31448 | 31561 | 245 | 82 | 163 |
| Private | 538 | 308 | 230 | - | - | - | |
| Region Južne i Istočne Srbije | Public | 43099 | 21222 | 21877 | 228 | 68 | 160 |
| Private | 406 | 323 | 83 | - | - | - | |
| Region Kosovo i Metohija | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
2. Upper secondary schools and students by sex and region, end of school 2024/2025
| Regular upper secondary schools | Schools for students with disabilities | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| schools | students | schools | students | |||||
| total | girls | boys | total | girls | boys | |||
| REPUBLIC OF SERBIA | 494 | 227276 | 112792 | 114484 | 26 | 1547 | 545 | 1002 |
| SRBIJA – SEVER | 234 | 118452 | 58900 | 59552 | 14 | 1115 | 407 | 708 |
| Beogradski region | 98 | 59549 | 29714 | 29835 | 5 | 527 | 177 | 350 |
| Region Vojvodine | 136 | 58903 | 29186 | 29717 | 9 | 588 | 230 | 358 |
| SRBIJA – JUG | 260 | 108824 | 53892 | 54932 | 12 | 432 | 138 | 294 |
| Region Šumadije i Zapadne Srbije | 141 | 63986 | 31747 | 32239 | 5 | 189 | 70 | 119 |
| Region Južne i Istočne Srbije | 119 | 44838 | 22145 | 22693 | 7 | 243 | 68 | 175 |
| Region Kosovo i Metohija | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
The number of students that graduated from regular secondary school is 56 757 and there is almost an equal percentage of female students (49.9%) and male students (50.1%). About 86.3% of students graduated from four-year high school (27.7% gymnasium and 58.6% four-year vocational high school). Furthermore, 13.7% of students completed the three-year secondary vocational school. When observing the gender, 59% of female students completed a four-year secondary vocational school, 33% a gymnasium and only 8% a three-year vocational school. The majority of students (58.3%) completed four-year vocational secondary education, 22.4% completed general upper secondary education, while 19.3% completed three-year vocational programmes, which provide direct access to the labour market.
General secondary education - a little more than a quarter (27.7%) of all students who completed secondary school completed gymnasium, and almost three quarters completed vocational school. Observed according to areas of work, young people most often complete educational profiles in the areas of work "Economy, law and administration" (12%); "Electrical engineering" (11.9%); "Health and social protection" (10.1%); "Mechanical engineering and metal processing" (9.1%) and "Trade, catering and tourism" (7.9%).
Female students most often completed education for profiles in the fields of work "Economy, law and administration" (16.5%); "Health and social protection" (15.6%) and "Trade, hospitality and tourism" (8.3%), and male students "Electrical engineering" (21.6%); "Mechanical engineering and metal processing" (16.3%) and "Economics, law and administration" and "Trade, catering and tourism"(with 7.5% and 7.4% respectively).
Methodological explanations
Data on secondary education at the end of the 2024/2025 school year and the beginning of the 2025/2026 school year were obtained from the Ministry of Education's database – the Unified Education Information System (JISP). Since the beginning of the 2022/2023 school year, the Statistical Office of the Republic no longer conducts regular statistical surveys on primary education, where primary schools submitted statistical reports reflecting the situation at the beginning and end of the school year.
The data presented in this announcement refer to the level of education ISCED3 according to the International Standard Classification of Education (The International Standard Classification of Education - ISCED2011).
Secondary education and upbringing are achieved in accordance with the goals defined by law.
The activity of secondary education and upbringing is carried out in a secondary school, which can be established as a gymnasium, as an art school, as a vocational school or as a mixed school (gymnasium and vocational or art school). General secondary schools provide education over a four-year period, whereas vocational schools operate in either four-year or three-year programmes, depending on the profile and purpose of the curriculum. In the school for students with developmental disabilities, education and training for the appropriate occupations of the students attending this school is provided based on the opinion of the interdepartmental committee for the assessment of additional educational, health and social support for the student, with the consent of the parents.
The term "student" means a full-time student. A regular student is a person enrolled in school with the aim of attending classes. Secondary education is implemented according to areas of work, and within them according to appropriate educational profiles.
Secondary education ends with a state-level exam.
Since 1999, the Republic Institute of Statistics has not had individual data for the AP of Kosovo and Metohija, so they are not included in the data for the Republic of Serbia (total).