The article describes the secondary education system in Serbia from 1808 to the 1870s. It focuses on the secondary education development, and the difficulties that were arising during the organization of the educational process. Scientific and reference literature on the research topic were used as materials. The methodology used a set of scientific methods: multi-factor and integration methods, periodization, typology, comparison, etc., which in unity, ensure the reliability of the results on the studied problem. This is interdisciplinary research, based on the comparativist principle, which allows various informative sources to be revealed. Ultimately, application of these methods made it possible to create a coherent picture of the secondary education in Serbia. In the conclusion the authors note that by the 1870s an extensive network of secondary schools were developed in Serbia. These schools were represented by the Lyceum (the Great School), gymnasiums, semi-gymnasiums, non-classical secondary schools, and an all-girls school. These educational institutions were focused on training professionals for the public service, including teachers. Thanks to the work of the secondary schools in Serbia it became possible to dramatically increase the number of people with secondary and secondary professional education. This ultimately allowed for the opening of the first higher educational institution in the beginning of the 20th century, the University of Belgrade.