The Danish Education System by Dida Hartvig

ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF PROJECT IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
Dida 2.p d. 9/9 2007

After elementary school – then what?

After elementary school that goes from 0th grade (kindergarten or preschool) to 9th grade (to be it exact it is from 1st to 9th grade, because kindergarten does not count as a school year, as it is called preschool/kindergarten) there are several sides to choose from. Some choose a year in 10th grade, others choose continuation school and most choose an upper secondary level education, such as common upper secondary school, STX, (Danish abbreviation), commercial upper secondary school, HHX, technical upper secondary school, HTX, or Hf which is an education of two years, contrary to the others that take three years. Besides that a major part of the pupils choose to skip the upper secondary school and go straight to what is called a vocational education, like a carpenter, electrician, chef or social and health assistant etc.

The New Reform of the Upper Secondary School

In August 2006 a new reform of the Upper Secondary School was implemented, having its effect in every upper secondary school in Denmark. The reform implies that you no longer choose a mathematical side or a linguistic side, but instead of two sides you now have the possibility of choosing between several different sides, depending on which specific upper secondary school you choose. Still, there are 5-6 student sides available in almost every upper secondary school, e.g. Biology as major topic, Social Science and English as major topics, Mathematics and Mathematic Science as major topics, English and foreign languages as major topics, just to name a few sides. The new and different student sides have made it easier to choose more widely - so you e.g. can have both mathematical and some linguistic classes. Further more, now you do not have to choose with such a tight limit as you had to before, (the new reform gives more options than it takes away, when it comes to choosing a side) and many students think this is an improvement. On the other hand, the new reform has taken away some things from the old reform - such as the student trip in the third and last year, which is a trip for pupils studying advanced topics.
The trip is not as relevant in the new reform, because from the beginning you have chosen a specific side, where everyone has the same courses – therefore the trip is being phased out, a situation the students are not entirely happy about.

Scale of 7 Steps

With the new reform and the new sides a new scale of grades is being implemented. This also applies in HHX, HTX, HF, elementary schools, universities, vocational education etc.