The State Matura Project in Serbia started in January 2019.  After an initial piloting in 2020, the second iteration of the general, artistic and vocational State Matura was organised in April 2022.  This State Matura will replace the graduation exam (maturski ispit) currently taken by all students at the end of upper secondary education (both general and vocational). This exam assesses competences acquired during secondary cycle and is compulsory for all students at the end of the 4th grade.

In the second piloting all students took part, from general upper secondary to art schools and four-year programmes of vocational upper secondary.  This trial exercise was been carried out to evaluate the quality of procedures and tasks and for this purpose, a test was taken in general education subjects. For professional subjects in vocational schools, a professional exam has been simulated, but the practical part has been taken only by a sample of students. 

The new concept of State Matura in Serbia is under preparation. As from 2024, all students will take this test format at the end of the 4th year of upper secondary education.   In concrete terms, students who complete:

• 4-year general upper secondary school take the exam which has a general part (test and essay in the Serbian/Native Language and Literature and either Mathematics or Foreign Language) and an individual part (writing the graduation paper in a subject matter chosen by the student). 
• 4-year vocational upper secondary school take the vocational graduation exam, with three distinctive parts: Serbian/Native Language and Literature, Mathematics (except for the profiles that do not have Math in the last two years) and Vocational exam (both theoretical and practical). 
• 3-year vocational programme take a dedicated final exam with a professional certification character. 

Finally, an important aspect of this project is the awareness raising.  To introduce concept of State Matura and its importance to the society, the project team established official website and a devoted Help Desk. 

Source:  Eurydice Unit Serbia