Serbia’s oldest school to celebrate its 296th anniversary

BELGRADE – Belgrade’s Kralj Petar Prvi primary school, the oldest school in Serbia, celebrates 296 years since its establishment on Wednesday.

The celebration will be held at the Faculty of Education in Belgrade Wednesday evening, Kralj Petar Prvi’s acting director Mladen Stefanovic has told Tanjug.

Over the decades and centuries, the school has been changing its name and had changing fortunes in turbulent times, but it managed to endure as the first and oldest, its roots reaching back to 1718.

The school’s monograph said it was first mentioned as ‘Mala srpsko-slovenska skola u Beogradu' with teacher Stevan as lecturer, later to become 'Varoska osnovna skola'.

The 5th and 6th grades were introduced in 1898, says the monograph the school issued on the occasion of its 275th anniversary said.

The school's youngest today still attend their lessons in a building designed by Jelisaveta Nacic, Serbia’s first women architect.

Today, the building in Kralja Petra Street in Belgrade’s downtown is a monument of culture and a learning place for 1st to 3rd grade primary school students.

The school is internationally recognized as a monument of cultural and historical heritage in Serbia and is a member of UNESCO’s Associated Schools Project Network.

In the 2012-13 school year it was proclaimed a “school of best practices” by Serbia's Ministry of Education and Institute for Education Quality and Evaluation.

Photo Tanjug/O. Toskic