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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Artificial intelligence in school teaching as of 1 September

Belgrade, 1 June 2021

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic announced today at an online presentation of the Evaluation study of digital availability policies in the Republic of Serbia that as of 1 September artificial intelligence will become part of the curriculum in elementary education.

Brnabic said that as early as the first grade, children are introduced to algorithmic thinking and she recalled that in 2017 programming became an obligatory subject since the fifth grade of elementary school.

Since 2017 we have started with the introduction of digital textbooks and digital classrooms and the plan is to fully digitise all our schools and the educational system by the end of 2022, the Prime Minister stated.

She noted that retraining of employees for the field of IT is an excellent example of how the state takes care of the digital literacy of the people of all ages and added that until now over 2,000 candidates underwent the retraining and that this process is ongoing.

Speaking about the digital connectedness, the Prime Minister explained that the goal is to provide broadband network for 99 percent of households in Serbia by 2025.

According to her, over the past five years Serbia achieved an incredible success in the field of digital transformation of the government.

We have almost fully switched to e-government as the best way to provide an efficient, transparent and responsive public administration to the citizens and the economy. I do not think it is exaggerated to say that every individual in Serbia has understood over the past five years the importance of digitalisation, Brnabic underlined.

The Prime Minister said that special advantage of digitalisation was seen in the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, both when it comes to public administration, and to education and the economy.

She pointed out that digitalisation is necessary in order to provide better services, that the state be at citizens’ disposal round the clock, and for a better quality education and a more competitive economy.

The study that we present today aims at establishing the current state of digital accessibility in Serbia and to pave the way for future progress. We want to establish an even more inclusive digital society and we want to overcome digital divide, which is a growing problem in the whole world, the Prime Minister explained.

Brnabic said that every day around 10,000 citizens in Serbia become e-Citizens at e-Government portal and that this is a merit of the immunisation system to a large degree.

The focus on digitalisation is seen in large investments, such as the introduction of broadband network in all neighbourhoods, construction of data centres, technology parks, as well as improvement of accessibility for all categories of society, Brnabic concluded.