THE STATE, ACCESSIBILITY, AND SIGNIFICANCE OF EDUCATION IN SERBIA

International conventions state that the right to an education is a basic human right which countries are obliged to guarantee. In Serbia, as in most countries, this right is guaranteed by the Constitution. However, data on a large part of the structure of the Serbian population with a lower level of educational attainment indicated that one part of the citizens did not realize this right since they did not continue their education after primary school. Therefore, the aim was to determine how the citizens of Serbia evaluated the state of education in Serbia as a whole (its quality), the accessibility (whether there are fair opportunities in education for all categories of the population), and the significance of education in Serbia (whether the knowledge acquired, and skills developed are relevant for employment). The results were obtained by analyzing the latest data from the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2018/2019 in Serbia on a sample of 2043 interviewees. The study was carried out by trained interviewers, in face-to-face interviews. The initial hypotheses were confirmed: a) a low prevalence of high grades for the state of education as a whole, the accessibility, and significance of education in Serbia, and b) that there is a difference in the perception of education depending on some of the socio-demographic characteristics of the interviewees. The creation of a favorable social and institutional environment and changes in the education policy are preconditions for the improvement of the quality and accessibility of education in Serbia.