A year later, the grain trader Ignjat Barajevac bequeathed a property that consisted of a large building, the inn "Kod zvezde", for the establishment of a boarding school.

[3] On the left side of the staircase, a granite slab with the inscription "Final cornerstone on 19 November 1888" was walled up, behind which a monument was placed in the cavity.

The main task of the gymnasium was to provide general education, knowledge of classical languages, and the history of literature to prepare students for university activities.

Mihajlo Pupin, a Serbian physicist and one of the founding members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), which later became NASA, was a student of this gymnasium between 1870 and 1872.

He had to leave the school in order not to be expelled because of his participation in the torchlight procession as part of Svetozar Miletić's arrival in Pančevo.

Great attention was paid to education and discipline; a ban on children going to the cinema with three poor grades; aprons at least 10 cm below the knee; imprisonment as punishment for certain offences.

After the end of the war and after the instalment of the communist government, plans and programs changed, new subjects were introduced, classes were improved by opening laboratories, enriching the book fund, organising excursions, professional training of professors, founding sectors, and scientific groups.

Since 1958, the school has been called Gymnasium "Uroš Predić" but it was changed to the "Center for the Education of Professional Workers in Social Activities" in 1977, but it was renamed back to its former name in 1990.