The Danish Education System by Mads Sørensen

The Danish education system.

The quality of the Danish education system is high, comparable to many other countries. Denmark doesn’t have many natural resources like oil, natural gasses, gold, silver etc. That’s why Denmark has to “live” off their knowledge, which is one of the reasons why the Danish education system has so high demands.
The Danes especially need to be aware of countries like China, which is incredibly good at producing cheap products. That’s why it’s so important for the Danish people to follow the development, so we don’t become bankrupt because of to high prices on the products we offer. The state is also focusing a lot on getting Danish people out on the labour market as fast as possible, so the state’s income is on it’s maximum level.
The state pays and regulates the education system, which means that all Danish citizens can get an education, no matter what financial class they are in. There are a lot of Danes who is taking an education because it’s free and everyone is allowed one or more. Those people who are taking an education are also getting financial support from the state. They get a curtain amount of money each month so they can pay for their food, rent etc. It was a man called Grundtvig who started to argue for all Danish citizens to get a free education on a lifelong basis, which means that they should have the opportunity to take an education any time they want.
Danes start their education in the public municipal school when they are 7 years old. It takes 9-10 years to carry through the municipal school. The municipal school is a kind of intro to the classes they can choose and focus on after the municipal school, so they can get an idea on what classes they get mixed up in. In many schools there is a so called after school centre, where the children can play computer, do sports, socialize or go on expeditions with the teachers and other students. In that way the children can learn how to act when they are together with other people. When the children reach 7’th grade they start to get marks. This is the time when the school starts to be more important for the children’s future. After the municipal school the children can decide what education they would like to take. The most normal educations youngsters decide to take are general upper secondary education which includes STX, HHX, HF and HTX. It takes between 2-3 years to finish one of these educations, depending on which of them they decide to take. There are given marks from -3 to 12 in general upper secondary educations. This is what the marks are like: -3, 00, 02 (passes the test), 04, 7, 10 and 12 where -3 is the lowest and 12 is the highest mark. After having finished the general upper secondary education, there are some other educations people can decide to take.
Written by Mads A. Sørensen