Novelties in Serbian schools: Fifth graders will make budget proposals

Students of the first and fifth grades of primary schools and students of the first grade of secondary schools will have new curricula and programs, the Novosti daily reports. The essence of the novelties is lower volume of educational material and new elective courses.

Classes begin on September 3 for more than 800,000 students of primary and secondary schools in Serbia. For the first time, 65,910 students of the first grade of primary schools will sit at school desks and the highest number of first graders is enrolled in Belgrade – about 16,000.

While modifying the program, emphasis was on practical knowledge and skills. Thus, for example, in the subject „The world around us“ everything is explained by using examples from the immediate environment of students, at school or at home. The first graders will learn about the New Year, Christmas, School Day, St. Sava…

In the Serbian language program, the number of literary works that first graders must master has been reduced, and reading in sequences has been introduced so that they would get accustomed to reading longer literary works. In mathematics, for example, they will not learn to measure in metres or litres right away, because that is abstract for them, instead, they will use steps.

Project-based teaching is also introduced, where students will discuss certain topics from multiple subjects with teachers, and they will then work in groups on projects in order to get acquainted with group work.

By reducing the volume of educational material for the fifth grade, learning alternations is postponed for the sixth grade, the number of works analysed in class was reduced, but the compulsory reading material is returned. The plan is not to teach grammar as a list of facts, but through examples found in literary works that students read.

Together with percentages in mathematics, fifth graders will also learn the elements of financial literacy by making simple budget proposals themselves, the Novosti daily reports.

Izvor: Večernje novosti

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