The determination of the levels of mathematical knowledge and skills is of essential importance when planning and organizing any form of work with students as well as in the process of creating mathematics curriculum. A question emerges: What kind of mathematical knowledge and skills are children equipped with when entering the first grade of primary school? In the Republic of Macedonia, written mathematics testing of children at this age (approximately 6 years) is not conducted. At the national level there are no data on this issue.At the beginning of the school year 2011/2012 a research study was conducted in primary schools in the Republic of Macedonia, based on a previous research conducted in the Netherlands. The results on five of the given problems are discussed and compared with the results obtained from similar studies conducted previously in other European countries. Another question consequently emerges: Does the national mathematics curriculum for the first grade give full credit to children's actual mathematics competences and does it provide optimal conditions for their further advancement?Key words: first grade pupils; mathematical competences; national curriculum; primary education.---SažetakOdređivanje razina matematičkog znanja i vještina od ključne je važnosti prilikom planiranja i organiziranja rada s učenicima, kao i prilikom stvaranja kurikula iz područja matematike. Pitanje koje se postavlja jest: Kakvo znanje i vještine iz matematike posjeduju učenici na početku prvog razreda osnovne škole? U Republici Makedoniji ne provode se pismeni testovi iz matematike za šestogodišnjake. Na nacionalnoj razini ne postoje podatci povezani s tom problematikom.Na početku šk. god. 2011./2012. u Republici Makedoniji provedeno je istraživanje u osnovnim školama koje se oslanja na istraživanje u Nizozemskoj. Provedena je analiza rezultata i njihova usporedba s rezultatima sličnih istraživanja u europskim zemljama. Na kraju istraživanja postavlja se pitanje: Uzima li nacionalni kurikul za matematiku za prvi razred u obzir u potpunosti matematičku kompetenciju djece i pruža li im optimalne uvjete za daljnji napredak? Ključne riječi: matematičke kompetencije; nacionalni kurikul; primarno obrazovanje; učenici prvoga razreda

University studies, among other things, are aimed at enabling primary school teachers and preschool teachers to support the development of mathematical competences of young learners. Although mathematics content knowledge is a major component of the professional body of knowledge required for teaching mathematics, teachers' professional beliefs on what mathematics is and how mathematics is learned have a significant mediating effect on teachers' success in providing genuine opportunities for learning meaningful mathematics. The research goal of the study conducted at the beginning of the second semester, when students encounter their first mathematics course for teachers, was to analyze the prospective teachers' beliefs on the nature of mathematics and on mathematics learning. The student questionnaire consisted of parts of the questionnaire used in the international study TEDS-M and of a small number of mathematics items designed to verify the answers given by the questionnaire respondents. The results revealed a difference between the self-professed beliefs of the students and the approaches they used to respond to the mathematics items. These findings point to the need for providing specific learning opportunities within initial teacher education to help future teachers in developing coherent mathematical knowledge for teaching and consistent professional beliefs.

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Abstract:The foundation for children '