Happy First Day of School
2 September 2024
The City Municipality of Zemun traditionally gives gifts to first-graders within the “Zemun First-Grader” project. In 20 primary and special schools, 2,000 first-graders were greeted in their classrooms by backpacks provided again this year by the City Municipality of Zemun. The backpacks contain pencil cases, T-shirts, writing and drawing supplies, notebooks, a drawing pad, a class timetable and a multiplication table. On the first day of the school year, the leadership of the City Municipality of Zemun took part in the ceremonial welcome of the new generation of students, and on that occasion wished all students and teachers success in their work — that students master the material with ease and delight their parents with their achievements, and that their teachers work in the best possible conditions and in line with innovative educational programmes. The first-graders were welcomed by the Deputy President of the City Municipality of Zemun, Žika Krstić, who was at the “Veljko Ramadanović” School for Visually Impaired Students. The joy of starting school with parents, children and the staff of the “Sonja Marinković” Primary School was shared by Vladimir Kostić, a member of the Council of the City Municipality of Zemun. “The City Municipality of Zemun continues to invest in school infrastructure and in raising the level of the educational process. Education in Zemun has a continuity three centuries long, and as continuers of that tradition we care for students from the start of their schooling, following their development and rewarding their successes. Every year we set aside budget funds used for the children of our municipality — from organising the transport of preschool and school children to kindergartens and schools, the current maintenance of schools and kindergartens, the arrangement of park areas, the funding of school sport and associations that work with children with developmental disabilities, all the way to distributing baby packages, New Year's gift packages, children's car seats and gift packages for first-graders,” said Vladimir Kostić, a member of the Council of the City Municipality of Zemun, stressing the importance of working together so that every new generation has the best possible conditions for learning and development. We have detailed records of the first regular schools in Zemun from 1745. The Gazette of the Learned Society mentions a Serbian school in Zemun from 1720, and, as its oldest teacher, a certain Toma, followed by the schoolmaster Maksim around the middle of the 18th century. Today Zemun has 17 primary schools, a music school, three special schools and seven secondary schools, as well as four state higher-education institutions.