At all schooling levels teaching is performed in languages of national minorities, too.
Elementary education takes eight years.
It is compulsory and free. In Vojvodina there are 539 regular elementary schools with teaching in Serbian, Hungarian, Slovakian, Romanian and Ruthenian language. Subjects at choice, that is mother tongue and national culture, are taught in Ukrainian and Romany as well. There are also schools for children hampered in development, for elementary education of adults, as well as specialized ballet and music schools. The roots of schooling system in Vojvodina reach back in the twelfth century, while the first Serbian public school were opened in the seventeenth century.