What are the school systems like in Slavic countries?

8 comments

1. There is a required elementary school up to the 9th grade.

   At age 14/15 people then continue to high school, they choose between a trade school, specialized school like for economics or something, or a gymnasium which can be general or specialized in languages or maths etc.

   After a high school that lasts 3 years (trade schools) you are not eligible for university, but with 4 years of high school you are eligible.

2. You go to school at 6-7 yo and study for 9 years, then you pass Basic State Examination and you have a choice between leaving school and go to college for 3-4 years tears or staying at school for 2 more years (11 years in total) and then go to university. Each building where you (parents?) live and registered is attached to the nearest school, but it’s common that there may be no free slots, so you have to go to the next closest school. Schools, colleges are free, except private ones. In schools you get marks from 1 to 5, where 5 is the best possible mark, 2 is the worst. The “1” mark is never given or at least are very very rare, but my classmate still managed to get it once. AFAIK you can’t get kicked from school, you have to be a very bad kid. You study 9 months since Sep 1 to May 31, there are 4 vacations (fall, new year, spring summer) and usually no exams in between but you get marks for each discipline (subject) every 3 months which is then used to calculate your yearly mark for the discipline. After graduating school (11 years) you pass Unified State Exam (USE/ЕГЭ). The state pays for your education in uni if you have enough score in USE/ЕГЭ. If your score is low and you want to go to uni you either pay for your education or make a contract (usually a contract between you, university and an employer which is usually a state owned company) where you study for free but then have to work for an employer e.g for 3 years (with salary but I heard that it’s lower than average) and if you get fired you have to pay an amount of money the state paid for your education. You don’t have to work or pay if you go to uni with high scores without contract. If you don’t go to uni/college, you are likely to be conscripted for one year.

3. Bulgarian here. When I went to school (1997-2009) it was like this: you get enrolled at age 7. My parents enrolled me when I was 6 so I can be 17 when I graduate and therefore avoid getting drafted, enroll into uni and get drafted when I’m 22-23. The draft got abolished anyway by the time I finished school so all it got me was getting bullied for being a year younger, and even further lowered my chanced for girls in my environment to be interested in me. 😀

   Elementary school lasts for 4 years, 1-4th grade. The school year starts on September 15th and ends on May 31st (with the exception of 1st grade when it ends on May 24th, the celebration of St. St. Cyril and Methodius and the day of Bulgarian culture). In middle school (5-7th grade) it gets extended to June 15th and in high school (8-12th) to June 30th. Exams on a national level are held after 7th grade to apply for a high school (I think now also after 4th grade) and after finishing 12th grade there are “maturity exams”. In my time (2009) those were a complete joke.

   The school curriculum usually includes Bulgarian language and literature (in 1st grade it’s mostly learning the letters plus that torture called *krasnopis* (calligraphy) which usually results in your handwriting looking like barbed wire so instead we call it *groznopis* (uglygraphy)), maths, PE, a first foreign language (usually English from the 1st grade), a second foreign language (usually German, French, Spanish or Russian, typically since 5th grade), science (since 3-4th grade, then in 5th grade it gets split into physics, chemistry and biology), history, music, visual arts and trades/industrial arts/I don’t know how this is called but it included woodworking, engineering, sewing, cooking all rolled into one. After 10th grade, some schools might offer specialized courses like sciences, a third language, economics, or vocational training, and students may opt to graduate at this stage. In language-specialized high schools, classes since the 9th grade may be held in the primary language the school specializes in, such as English, German or French, with the 8th grade serving as a preparatory year.

   Oh, I forgot grades. They’re in ascending order, from 1 to 6, with some serious inflation:

   1 – “Bad”, only ever given for passing hints, very rarely actually used. I did have it awarded once.

   2 – “Poor”, failing grade

   3 – “Average”, piss-poor, barely passing

   4 – “Good”, the actual low to average grade

   5 – “Very Good”, the actual “average to good”

   6 – “Excellent”. The real “good – very good – excellent” scale is 5.50 – 5.75 – 6.00

   Grades can be fractioned and those above .50 are rounded up with the exception of grades lower than 3.00. For example, 5.50 is rounded up to a 6, but 2.99 is an especially “fuck you” way to still award someone a failing grade.

4. Mandatory education starts at 7 and ends at 18. If you’re under 18 and not in education, your parents can be fined or, in extreme cases, even lose their parenting rights over you. Note this doesn’t necessarily mean being in school – attending some kind of lifelong learning classes, or taking trade lessons at some company also counts.

   Either way. At 7 years old, you go to primary school. (There is a possibility to start a year earlier, at 6. This requires filing some forms and a positive opinion from a psychologist.) Primary school takes 8 years and ends with an exam. At this point, you got three options:

   1. _Liceum_ – high school. Takes 4 years. At the end, you get an option to write the _matura_ exam (used for getting into higher education).

   2. _Technikum_ – vocational high school. Takes 5 years. Works pretty much the same as a “regular” high school, but features extra trade classes. At the end, you take a trade exam – which grants you the title of _technik_ (technician), as well as the option to write the _matura_.

   3. Trade school. Takes 3 years, ends with a trade exam. Upon graduating, you may just go to work, or continue your education by going to a II-degree trade school – which takes 2 years, ends with a trade exam granting you the title of _technik_ and giving you the option to write the _matura_. (So in the end it works out very similarly as if you’d gone to the _technikum_).

   At this point you’re 18+ years old and can finish your education. If you want to continue, you can go to university – which requires the _matura_ exam. If you’re an adult without the _matura_, you can always go back and attend a _liceum dla dorosłych_ (high school for adults), which takes 3 years of part-time classes.

5. What exactly do you want to know about them? If you are asking more to how is the schooling culture and experience then you would have to be more specific. But I can give you a quick explanation of how the system is structured.

   Here in Czechia there are 3 years of kindergarden. Only the last year of kindergarden is compulsory. Then at the age of 6 you enroll to what we call ‘basic school’. These 9 years are the compulsory part of your education.

   After that most people go to a high school, some go to a trade school. Trade schools usually last from 2-3 years and you get a ‘certificate’ for that trade.

   High schools last 4 years and you can choose between a grammar school or a specialized high school, where you also choose a major. After you finish high school you get something called ‘maturita’, which is a school leaving exam basically. Grammar schools continue teaching very broad variate of subjects just like basic schools plus some extra and you will leave with not much applicable knowledge, but they can be a good choice for people who know they will go to university later. But most people go to the specialized high schools. These schools still have some of the broader subjects taught at basic schools, but as the name implies they are more specialized. For example you got business high schools, engineering high schools, medical high schools and such. While you won’t become a doctor at a medical high school, this level of education is good enough for nurses for example. As I said you also choose a major here. For example an engineering high school might offer mechanical engineering, programing, electrical and such. Most people stop here as with your ‘maturita’ you can enter many positions in your field. Many people try a university after but most usually leave after the first year. Universities work basically the same as in most western countries.

   Education is completely free in Czechia until the age of 26. After that you have to pay for it out of pocket. There are some rules like you cannot spend more than x years in high schools/university for example, so people wouldn’t abuse it to hop around different high schools/universities to remain listed as students for tax evasion for example. But that still happens.

6. Not that different to others I would say. Here is a breakdown for Croatia.

   **Elementary school (age 7 – 15)**

   You start at age of 7 or 6 depends on many things. There are 4 years of “junior” elementary school, where kids are mostly with the same teacher and do not have some specific classes (like physics, chemistry and so on). Only special class you have is one foreign language, most commonly English, German or Italian.

   After 4 years of “junior” elementary school you advance to “senior” elementary school which lasts also 4 years. This is in the same building and at the same place, but you get new teachers who are now specialized to their field. You also get a bunch of new classes like Informatics, Geography, History, another foreign language (you now have 2 + croatian). At year 7, you also get Physics and Chemistry classes.

   **High School (age 15-18)**

   You start high school after you finish 8 years of elementary school. There are 2 types of High Schools. What we call gymnasium and vocational schools. Gymnasium is more general and kind of prepares you for anything you want to study in university. There are some which are more specialized for Math or language. Vocational schools are schools which when you finish you have a degree in that trade. For example, electrician, plumber, carpenter, specialized machine worker, cook, nurse etc. (there is A LOT of them).

   If you are in gymnasium, you have something like 14 different classes per year. These include a lot, and differ between different specilized schools. For example, in Math focused schoold, you would have more math and physics classes as well as programming. If you are in language focused one, you would have more languages like greek or spanish. In all gymnasiums you have Latin as an additional language (now you have 3 + croatian).

   Vocational schools curriculum depends HIGHYLY on the school and is impossible to name it all here. My high school alone had 14 different vocational schools you could take and each had different curriculum.

   At the end of the High School, if you wish to go to uni you need to do a “Matura” which is a national standardized test whose points determine to which uni you can enroll.

   **University (age 18-24)**

   When you enroll into a university you have system of 3 years for bachelor, and 2 years for masters. Some have integrated masters which is 5 years (you dont get bachelor). If you are a regular student, you pay only the entrance fee to the university which is of the order of 20 EUR or something per year. Even though its 5 years long, many people study longer and that is seen as normal.

   How the courses and exams look like is different between university. But some generalization is that you have written exams (sometime 1 sometimes 2) during the semester (there are 2 semesters per year) and if you pass the written exam you go to the final exam which can be oral or written depending on the university. If you pass those, you pass the class. Normally, you need 50% to pass a class.

   ​

   That is pretty much it, if you have any question, i will be happy to answer.

7. Mandatory 9 years of elementary school. During this time, you can change to a grammar school or language school. After elementary school, you can continue to grammar school, vocation school, or other types of high school (busines, industrial, etc). Most of them are finished with a leaving exam. Then, you can continue to university or have a similar establishment to get a degree.

8. I will explain most common types :

   Kindergarten – it’s required for last year before school(5 y.o. kids), although kids can get in earlier, depends on capacity. Most kindergartens prefer local kids, which means if they can fill school with local children, children from other villages can’t sign up.

   Elementary school (age 6-15) – it’s usually split in two parts, first one is grade 1-4(age 6-10) and second one is grade 5-9(age 10-15). Smaller villages often have grades only 1-4, although many are non-existent nowadays due to gen Z being super tiny(non-existent) in many smaller villages.

   High school (age 15-19) – there are many types(usually from 3 to 5 years), but regular one lasts for 4 years and ends with maturitna skuska(basically like high school diploma).

   University – Bachelor (age 19-22) ends with diploma and Bc. before name. Master’s degree (age 22-24) end with diploma and Ing./Mgr. before name(rewrites Bc.). PhD. (24-27) end with diploma and PhD. after surname.

   University gives you most flexibility and you can go there much older. Btw everything is free till you are 26.