Croatian elementary education consists of eight years, and is compulsory. Children begin school at the age of 6 or 7.
The students are divided into three or more classes and these classes are referred to as the A class, the B class, the C class, and so on. The students stay with their class throughout all 8 years.
The grade schools are split in two stages:
1st through 4th grade, being taught by one teacher per class that teaches every subject with the exception of foreign languages and Religion, with subjects such as Croatian, mathematics, visual art (likovna kultura), nature and society (priroda i društvo), physical education, music education, and at least one foreign language (usually English, usually in the 1st grade and compulsory in the 4th grade). Religious education is an elective subject, and students can choose among Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic religious classes. The students stay in one classroom for the 4 years.
5th through 8th grades, where different teachers teach different subjects, with added subjects such as history, geography, biology, chemistry, physics, informatics and in addition to English, often a second language (usually German, French or Italian). The students no longer have one classroom, but rather move around the school to get to their classes.
Since the primary school became compulsory (during the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia), the literacy rate in Croatia is at a substantial level of 98.1%. The majority of children manage to complete the grade school.
The majority of the schools teach either English, German or Italian as soon as the first grade. The majority of schools offer a second language starting from the 4th grade. The most popular foreign languages are English, German and Italian, followed by Spanish, French and Russian.
People who have completed only primary education are classified as "unqualified workers" (Croatian: nekvalificirani radnik or NKV) by the employment bureaus. 2.8% of Croatians never went to primary school, 15.7% never completed it and 21.7% have completed only primary education. 47% of Croatians have completed secondary education and 7.9% have a university degree.
There are currently 940 primary schools in Croatia. The public primary schools are under the jurisdiction of local government, the cities and municipalities.