In Estonia the provision of general education at all levels of education is carried out on the basis of common national curricula irrespective of the language of instruction. Schools prepare their curricula on the basis of these national curricula. The duration of the study period is at least 175 school days (35 weeks), and there are four school holiday periods. There were approximately 148,000 pupils engaged in daytime study in general education schools during the 2008/2009 academic year, 12,426 of whom were in the first grade. Compared to the previous year, the number of pupils in general education schools decreased by 7,000.