Serbia School Calendar 2026/2027: All Holiday Dates
School began for 770,000 students in Serbia, here's the full calendar: when the holidays are, the date of the eighth grade exam, and what's new in classrooms this year.
Did your child sit at a school desk for the first time today? They weren’t alone. More than 62,500 first graders across Serbia took that same step this morning, and as of today, Tuesday, September 1, a total of 770,000 students are back in the classroom.
Of that number, 530,000 are elementary school students and 240,000 are in high school. About 27,000 elementary and roughly 8,800 high school students are attending classes in national minority languages, the Ministry of Education confirmed. Education Minister Dejan Vuk Stankovic said ahead of the first day that schools were ready.
“The curricula and programs have been set, and in some grades they’ve been updated in both high school and elementary school. Students have been enrolled, and the second enrollment period in high schools has been completed,” Stankovic said.
In other words, by his own account, the school year is off to a normal start.
If you read our story yesterday about getting first graders ready, this is the follow-up: today your child was actually at their desk, and we’ve put together the full calendar so you don’t have to hunt for dates on individual school websites.
When are the first and second semesters?
This is the question parents ask most often in September, so let’s get straight to the dates.
- In central Serbia, the first semester for elementary school students runs through December 30, and for high schoolers through December 31.
- In Vojvodina, the first semester runs through December 23.
- The second semester begins January 18, 2027, in central Serbia, and January 11, 2027, in Vojvodina.
When are the school holidays this year?
The calendar includes five breaks this year, listed below:
- autumn break, November 11 to 13
- winter break, December 31 to January 15 in central Serbia, and December 24 to January 8 in Vojvodina
- Sretenje break, February 15 to 19
- spring break, April 30 to May 4
- summer break, starting June 14
School doesn’t end on the same day for everyone. Graduating gimnazija (grammar school) seniors have their last class on May 21, while final year vocational school students and eighth graders finish on May 28. Other elementary school students stay in class through June 11, and other high schoolers through June 18. The eighth grade final exam, known as mala matura, is scheduled for June 14, 15 and 16, 2027.
What’s new in classrooms this year?
The first major change involves textbooks of national significance, now being introduced for Serbian language and literature, the world around us, history, geography, music and art. They’re being rolled out gradually, two grades at a time: first and fifth grade this year, second and sixth next year, third and seventh in 2028/2029, and finally fourth and eighth in 2029/2030.
The second change applies to high schools. As of September, Serbian language for foreigners is a mandatory subject for foreign national students pursuing a gimnazija education in Serbia.
The range of vocational tracks is changing too: six new educational profiles have been introduced, and four existing ones have been updated. Students showed the most interest in the vehicle mechatronics technician and renewable energy sources technician tracks, and the new profiles also include a viticulture and enology technician.
If you were hoping to hear something about a phone ban in the classroom, it’s still too early. The law banning mobile phones in schools remains only a draft, so there’s no general legal ban yet. Individual schools have been handling that issue on their own for years, through their own rules.
Free textbooks and school kits
Around 96,000 elementary school students received 919,156 free textbook units, funded by 1,020,954,000 dinars from the budget, just over 8.7 million euros at the median exchange rate. Free textbooks go to children from socially disadvantaged families, children following an individual education plan, the third and every subsequent child in a family within the education system, and students with developmental disabilities.
On top of that, more than 540,000 school kits were distributed to mark Expo 2027, along with about 8,000 sports kits with balls for gym classes.
Our advice for the first week
If your child started school for the first time today, the first week is usually easier than parents expect, kids adjust to the schedule quickly. What’s actually worth checking now is the date your school hands out textbook sets, since that varies from school to school, and the date of winter break in your area, since Vojvodina and central Serbia differ by a week. Write both dates into your phone calendar now, it’s a simple step that saves you the hassle of organizing later.
