North Macedonia's Education Minister Vesna Janevska has announced that preliminary enrolment figures for the 2026–27 school year stand at around 14,500 first-graders — a fall of nearly 38% from 23,266 a decade ago and well below last year's 17,921. The collapse in pupil numbers is forcing the closure of roughly 26 rural schools and the elimination of around 300 classes across primary and secondary education. Demographer Donco Gerasimovski attributes the decline to low birth rates and the emigration of young families, estimating that between 1,500 and 2,000 pupils vanish from school rolls every year as households leave the country — a trend compounded by North Macedonia's broader failure, over more than three decades, to deliver meaningful economic growth or secure EU membership, which has driven sustained outward migration and shrunk the national population by over 9% since 2001.