Danish Folkeskole Education
Encyclopedia
The Folkeskole is one type of school
in Denmark
, covering the entire period of compulsory education. This form of education cannot, as in the case of many other nations' education systems, be divided into primary
and secondary education
.
, a French
Benedictine
monk
, was the first missionary
to visit Denmark around 822, purchased the freedom of twelve male thralls and educated them in the first school in Denmark, at Hedeby
in Schleswig
. This was the forerunner of the religious houses which sprang forth over the entire country from about 1100 onwards. In their cloisters, boys from surrounding villages — and occasionally girls as well — received elementary instruction in the Mass
and in dogma
.
However, quite early trade and crafts demanded more practical schools. The primitive writing-and-counting schools had their origins here, usually with very mediocre teachers, but they were very useful and therefore they flourished, maintained by private support and by the guilds.
The Lutheran Reformation
came to Denmark from Germany
in 1536. As in Germany, Protestants quickly broke up the Catholic
school system. The religious houses were closed and the vast estates of the Roman Catholic Church taken over by the Crown. This meant that the state also took over such tasks as education
.
The Church Law of 1539 contains Denmark's first educational legislation with a formal requirement for schools in all provincial boroughs. While new grammar school
s sprang up, laying the foundation of classical humanism among the higher strata of society, the broad masses had to be content with the old Danish schools or writing schools which provided a primitive form of instruction.
A substantial stride was taken in the direction of popular education in 1721, when King Frederick IV
established 240 schoolhouses bearing the royal insignia and called them Cavalry schools after a division of the country into military districts. At the same time, the new religious movement of Pietism
was spreading from Germany to Denmark. It aroused among church people a sense of responsibility towards forthcoming generations and enjoyed royal support. A series of calls by the church for universal confirmation which could only be met by some degree of literacy
, brought many new schools into existence. Thus, a limited kind of compulsory education was formally introduced.
However, it was the 'philanthropic' movement, a very active current of educational thought inspired by J.J. Rousseau in the second half of the 18th century, that first succeeded in creating a real school for ordinary people, open to all children.
Planned training of teacher
s developed in parsonages and State training colleges, and two Education Acts were enacted in 1814, introducing better municipal primary schools and independent schools for children in rural areas all over Denmark.
When a prolonged agricultural crisis and economic slump after the Napoleonic wars
threatened to cripple the entire educational reform programme, the government had to resort to a distressingly mechanical method of education, the so-called Bell-Lancaster method
imported from the industrial north of England
, which reduced the number of teachers by a drastic simplification of the curriculum to enable preposterously large numbers of pupils to be taught by a single individual. After some years, this method provoked increasing opposition from parents, who wanted more liberal and inspiring forms of education. Their demands received vigorous support from the poet-clergyman, N.F.S. Grundtvig, who has exercised a powerful influence on the development of Danish schools. Grundtvig wanted to reduce the task of children's schools to no more than the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic in order to make room, either at home or at school, for a liberal narrative education that would build on the natural potential for development inherent in the child's mind.
Grundtvig's ideas were translated into practice by Christen Kold, who created a distinctively Danish parent-controlled school known as the free school as an alternative to state-sponsored education, exercising a growing influence over the latter's mode of functioning.
The Education Act of 1894 improved teacher training in several important respects. As Danish agriculture
continued to modernise Danish society continued to urbanise of society brought new Education Acts around 1900, which changed the Danish basic school by expanding its curriculum. A four year middle school for students over 11 years, was established in 1903 to form a bridge between the Folkeskole and the Realskole (lower secondary school) and the Gymnasium
. The middle schools rapidly attained great popularity, and over the next half-century, large numbers of children and young people used them as a stepping stone to upper secondary education.
The strong attraction to the upper classes to the Folkeskole gradually weakened. Since the conception of the welfare state
was intensifying the demand for social equality
and democratisation
, middle schools were reorganised in 1958 to include two academic paths: a 3-year academically oriented real department and the 8th-10th forms.
New acts in 1937, 1958, and 1975 reflected the demands of a new age in terms of equal access to all forms of education. The act of 1975 abolished the real-department and introduced two completely new examinations: the Exit Examination of the Folkeskole and the Advanced Exit Examination of the Folkeskole held on a single-subject basis.
A new act in 1990 introduced new provisions regarding the administration of the schools with more managerial competence vested in the headteacher and the setting up of school boards with large parental representation. Finally, another act that came into force in 1994 stiuplated that the Folkeskole give a student the opportunity to develop as many of their talents as possible. One of the watchwords of the new act is differentiated teaching, or that teaching should be adapted as much as possible to the individual student.
There are three different types of Folkeskoles, those with a pre-school and 1st-10th form levels, those with a pre-school and 1st-7th form levels, and those with only three or more consecutive form levels. The latter may be placed under the management of another school, unless the enrollment is more than 100.
Compulsory education can thus not be met fully in the second or third type of schools, and students in such school have to switch schools after the 7th form. The first type of school is common in areas with large pupil-basis, whereas more thinly populated municipalities
may have a number of the second and third type school and only one or two of the first type. The smallest school has six students and the largest 892, with the average school containing 320 pupils (1999).
Compulsory education commences on 1 August of the calendar year of the child's 7th birthday, and it terminates on 31 July, when the child has received regular instruction for 9 years, excluding pre-school. At the request of the parents or with their consent, a child's education may be postponed to one year after the normal commencement of compulsory education, when such a step is justified by the child's development. A child may also — at the request of their parents, and if they are considered able to follow the instruction — be admitted before their 7th birthday.
In the spring of 1991, the Danish Parliament adopted a new private school act, which introduced a new public grant system for private schools giving them a grant towards the operational expenditures per pupil per year, which in principle matches the corresponding public expenditures in the municipal schools - less the fees paid by the parents of the pupils in the private schools.
In 1999, the average grant towards the operational expenditures per pupil per year amounted to DKK
34,134 (USD
5,500) and the average fees paid by the parents amounted to DKK 6,942 (USD 1,100).
Private schools can be roughly divided into the following categories:
Private schools are recognised and receive government financing regardless of the ideological, religious, political, or ethnic motivation behind their establishment. Some private schools are very old, some quite new, and new ones are added all the time. It is characteristic of the private schools that they are smaller than municipal schools.
All that is demanded of private schools is that their teaching equal that of the municipal schools. The Ministry of Education confers on private schools the right to use the final examinations of the Folkeskole, thereby exercising a certain extent of quality control. In principle, however, it is not up to any government authority but to the parents of each private school to check that its performance measures up to the demands set for the municipal schools.
The parents must themselves choose a supervisor to check the pupils' level of achievement in Danish
, arithmetic
, mathematics
, and English
. If the school is found inadequate, the supervisor must report it to the municipal school authority. In extraordinary circumstances, the Ministry of Education may establish special supervision, for example if there is reason to believe that the school teaches a subject so poorly that it may give the pupils problems later on in life.
The comprehensive concept of the Folkeskole enables students to remain in the same student group with the same classmates from the 1st to the 10th (or 11th) form, sharing the same experiences in all subjects with peers of all types of backgrounds and covering the whole range of ability.
The new act, which came into effect for the school year 1994-95, has abolished the division of the subjects of arithmetic
, mathematics
, English
, German
, physics
, and chemistry
into basic and advanced level courses in the 8th to 10th forms, introducing a system of differentiated teaching, by which the teachers have to adapt their teaching to the prerequisites of the individual pupil.
"The Folkeskole shall — in co-operation with the parents — further the pupils' acquisition of knowledge, skills, working methods and ways of expressing themselves and thus contribute to the all-round personal development of the individual pupil.
"The Folkeskole shall endeavour to create such opportunities for experience, industry and absorption that the pupils develop awareness, imagination and an urge to learn, so that they acquire confidence in their own possibilities and a background for forming independent judgements and for taking personal action.
"The Folkeskole shall familiarise the pupils with Danish culture and contribute to their understanding of other cultures and of man's interaction with nature. The school shall prepare the pupils for active participation, joint responsibility, rights and duties in a society based on freedom and democracy. The teaching of the school and its daily life must therefore build on intellectual freedom, equality and democracy."
Danish
, Christian
studies — including in the oldest forms instruction in foreign religions and other philosophies of life, PE and sport, and mathematics
during the entire 10-year period; English
from the 4th to the 10th year; history
from the 4rd to the 10th year; music
from the 2nd to the 7th year; science
from the 1st to the 7th year; art
from the 1st to the 6th year; social studies
from the 8th to the 10th year; geography
1 and biology
2 from the 8th to the 10th year; physics
and chemistry
in the 8th to 10th year; needlework
, wood
- or metal
work and cooking
for one or more years between the 5th and 10th year.
The instruction in the basic school furthermore comprises the following obligatory topics: traffic safety, health
and sex education
and family planning
as well as educational, vocational and labour market orientation.
or French
, must be offered in the 7th to 9th year.
The following optional subjects and topics may be offered to the pupils in the 8th to 10th year: French or German as a third foreign language, word processing
, technology
, media
, art
, photography
, film
, drama
, music
, needlework
, wood
- or metal
work, home economics
, engine knowledge
, other workshop subjects, and vocational studies. Furthermore, Latin
may be offered to the pupils in the 10th year.
The teaching in the 10th form comprises the following subjects as obligatory subjects: Danish
, mathematics
, and English
to an extent corresponding to a total of 14 lessons a week (i.e. half of the minimum weekly teaching time). Instruction must be offered in PE and sport, Christian studies and religious education, social studies and physics or chemistry. Furthermore, pupils who have chosen German or French as second foreign language in the 7th to 9th years must be offered continued instruction in that subject in the 10th year.
The pupils in the 8th to 10th year must choose at least one optional subject.
, Religion studies, mathematics
, Art
, History
, Music
, PE
, English
and Science
. This are all the basic classes, and then there are the later classes: Home economics
, Chemistry
, Social studies
, needlework
, Wood Work, Physics
, Geography
and Biology
. Unlike some other countries, you don't dissect animals in Biology
in Denmark.
In addition to the basic skills, the Folkeskole is required by law to help promote the personal and social development of each individual student according to their capability. Working methods are modified towards the pupil's attainment of greater self-reliance and maturity. This aspect of pedagogic policy requires close co-operation between school and home, and an ongoing dialogue is sought between teachers, parents and pupils.
The act is very clear on this point, requiring that pupils and parents be regularly informed of the school's opinion about how each student is profiting from their schooling. In this case, regularly means at least twice a year and refers explicitly to information as to the students's personal and social development as well as his purely academic attainment.
In the 1st to 8th year, information is given either in writing or, which is more common, as part of the conversational exchanges between all three parties: pupil, parents and class teacher - which are a regular feature of Danish school life.
In the 9th to 11th year, the information system is increased to include a written report at least twice a year giving the pupil's * standpoint in academic achievement and in application. For pupils at this level, the evaluation of the level of attainment in the individual subjects is expressed in marks.
Marks are given according to the 7-point marking scale indicating the performance of the pupil:
The last such marks are given immediately before the written examinations and express the pupils' proficiency in the subject at that particular time.
The marking scale was changed April 2007 (order by Danish ministry of Education, Order no. 262 of 20 March 2007), to be comparable to the ECTS grading scale
:
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, covering the entire period of compulsory education. This form of education cannot, as in the case of many other nations' education systems, be divided into primary
Primary education
A primary school is an institution in which children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as primary or elementary education. Primary school is the preferred term in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth Nations, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational,...
and secondary education
Secondary education
Secondary education is the stage of education following primary education. Secondary education includes the final stage of compulsory education and in many countries it is entirely compulsory. The next stage of education is usually college or university...
.
Historical Overview
Legend has it that AnsgarAnsgar
Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar, was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. The see of Hamburg was designated a "Mission to bring Christianity to the North", and Ansgar became known as the "Apostle of the North".-Life:After his mother’s early death Ansgar was brought up in Corbie Abbey, and made rapid...
, a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
, was the first missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to visit Denmark around 822, purchased the freedom of twelve male thralls and educated them in the first school in Denmark, at Hedeby
Hedeby
Hedeby |heath]]land, and býr = yard, thus "heath yard"), mentioned by Alfred the Great as aet Haethe , in German Haddeby and Haithabu, a modern spelling of the runic Heiðabý was an important trading settlement in the Danish-northern German borderland during the Viking Age...
in Schleswig
Schleswig
Schleswig or South Jutland is a region covering the area about 60 km north and 70 km south of the border between Germany and Denmark; the territory has been divided between the two countries since 1920, with Northern Schleswig in Denmark and Southern Schleswig in Germany...
. This was the forerunner of the religious houses which sprang forth over the entire country from about 1100 onwards. In their cloisters, boys from surrounding villages — and occasionally girls as well — received elementary instruction in the Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
and in dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
.
However, quite early trade and crafts demanded more practical schools. The primitive writing-and-counting schools had their origins here, usually with very mediocre teachers, but they were very useful and therefore they flourished, maintained by private support and by the guilds.
The Lutheran Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
came to Denmark from Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1536. As in Germany, Protestants quickly broke up the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
school system. The religious houses were closed and the vast estates of the Roman Catholic Church taken over by the Crown. This meant that the state also took over such tasks as education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
.
The Church Law of 1539 contains Denmark's first educational legislation with a formal requirement for schools in all provincial boroughs. While new grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
s sprang up, laying the foundation of classical humanism among the higher strata of society, the broad masses had to be content with the old Danish schools or writing schools which provided a primitive form of instruction.
A substantial stride was taken in the direction of popular education in 1721, when King Frederick IV
Frederick IV of Denmark
Frederick IV was the king of Denmark and Norway from 1699 until his death. Frederick was the son of King Christian V of Denmark and Norway and Charlotte Amalie of Hesse-Kassel .-Foreign affairs:...
established 240 schoolhouses bearing the royal insignia and called them Cavalry schools after a division of the country into military districts. At the same time, the new religious movement of Pietism
Pietism
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to...
was spreading from Germany to Denmark. It aroused among church people a sense of responsibility towards forthcoming generations and enjoyed royal support. A series of calls by the church for universal confirmation which could only be met by some degree of literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
, brought many new schools into existence. Thus, a limited kind of compulsory education was formally introduced.
However, it was the 'philanthropic' movement, a very active current of educational thought inspired by J.J. Rousseau in the second half of the 18th century, that first succeeded in creating a real school for ordinary people, open to all children.
Planned training of teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
s developed in parsonages and State training colleges, and two Education Acts were enacted in 1814, introducing better municipal primary schools and independent schools for children in rural areas all over Denmark.
When a prolonged agricultural crisis and economic slump after the Napoleonic wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
threatened to cripple the entire educational reform programme, the government had to resort to a distressingly mechanical method of education, the so-called Bell-Lancaster method
Bell-Lancaster method
The Monitorial System was an education method that became popular on a global scale during the early 19th century. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell-Lancaster method" after the British educators Dr Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster who both independently developed it...
imported from the industrial north of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, which reduced the number of teachers by a drastic simplification of the curriculum to enable preposterously large numbers of pupils to be taught by a single individual. After some years, this method provoked increasing opposition from parents, who wanted more liberal and inspiring forms of education. Their demands received vigorous support from the poet-clergyman, N.F.S. Grundtvig, who has exercised a powerful influence on the development of Danish schools. Grundtvig wanted to reduce the task of children's schools to no more than the teaching of reading, writing and arithmetic in order to make room, either at home or at school, for a liberal narrative education that would build on the natural potential for development inherent in the child's mind.
Grundtvig's ideas were translated into practice by Christen Kold, who created a distinctively Danish parent-controlled school known as the free school as an alternative to state-sponsored education, exercising a growing influence over the latter's mode of functioning.
The Education Act of 1894 improved teacher training in several important respects. As Danish agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
continued to modernise Danish society continued to urbanise of society brought new Education Acts around 1900, which changed the Danish basic school by expanding its curriculum. A four year middle school for students over 11 years, was established in 1903 to form a bridge between the Folkeskole and the Realskole (lower secondary school) and the Gymnasium
Gymnasium (Denmark)
The Danish Gymnasium offers a 3-year general academically-oriented upper secondary programme which builds on the 9th-10th form of the Folkeskole and leads to the upper secondary school exit examination...
. The middle schools rapidly attained great popularity, and over the next half-century, large numbers of children and young people used them as a stepping stone to upper secondary education.
The strong attraction to the upper classes to the Folkeskole gradually weakened. Since the conception of the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
was intensifying the demand for social equality
Social equality
Social equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
and democratisation
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, middle schools were reorganised in 1958 to include two academic paths: a 3-year academically oriented real department and the 8th-10th forms.
New acts in 1937, 1958, and 1975 reflected the demands of a new age in terms of equal access to all forms of education. The act of 1975 abolished the real-department and introduced two completely new examinations: the Exit Examination of the Folkeskole and the Advanced Exit Examination of the Folkeskole held on a single-subject basis.
A new act in 1990 introduced new provisions regarding the administration of the schools with more managerial competence vested in the headteacher and the setting up of school boards with large parental representation. Finally, another act that came into force in 1994 stiuplated that the Folkeskole give a student the opportunity to develop as many of their talents as possible. One of the watchwords of the new act is differentiated teaching, or that teaching should be adapted as much as possible to the individual student.
Types of Institutions
There are different ways of meeting the rules pertaining to compulsory education: by attending the municipal Folkeskole, a private school, by home tuition, or as far as the last 2-3 years of the basic school are concerned by attending one of the alternative school forms: the efterskole, or the youth schools.Municipal Folkeskole
Municipal Folkeskoles have about 88% of all pupils of compulsory school age. They provide basic education free of charge to children between the ages of 6 and 17, or through the voluntary pre-school, the 9 years of compulsory education, to the voluntary 10th year.There are three different types of Folkeskoles, those with a pre-school and 1st-10th form levels, those with a pre-school and 1st-7th form levels, and those with only three or more consecutive form levels. The latter may be placed under the management of another school, unless the enrollment is more than 100.
Compulsory education can thus not be met fully in the second or third type of schools, and students in such school have to switch schools after the 7th form. The first type of school is common in areas with large pupil-basis, whereas more thinly populated municipalities
Municipalities of Denmark
This is a list of Municipalities of Denmark.-Region Hovedstaden:* Albertslund Municipality* Allerød Municipality* Ballerup Municipality* Bornholm Regional Municipality* Brøndby Municipality* Copenhagen Municipality* Dragør Municipality* Egedal Municipality...
may have a number of the second and third type school and only one or two of the first type. The smallest school has six students and the largest 892, with the average school containing 320 pupils (1999).
Admission Requirements
Any child resident in Denmark is subject to 9 years of compulsory education from the age of 7 to 16. Pre-school and the 10th form are not compulsory. Also children who are to live in Denmark for a minimum of 6 months are subject to the regulations on compulsory education. Compulsory education means an obligation to participate in the teaching of the Folkeskole or in a teaching which is comparable to what is usually required in the Folkeskole.Compulsory education commences on 1 August of the calendar year of the child's 7th birthday, and it terminates on 31 July, when the child has received regular instruction for 9 years, excluding pre-school. At the request of the parents or with their consent, a child's education may be postponed to one year after the normal commencement of compulsory education, when such a step is justified by the child's development. A child may also — at the request of their parents, and if they are considered able to follow the instruction — be admitted before their 7th birthday.
Private Schools
Private, or free elementary, schools catered to 12.9% of students in 2004/05 of basic school age (including the voluntary pre-school class and the voluntary 10th form).In the spring of 1991, the Danish Parliament adopted a new private school act, which introduced a new public grant system for private schools giving them a grant towards the operational expenditures per pupil per year, which in principle matches the corresponding public expenditures in the municipal schools - less the fees paid by the parents of the pupils in the private schools.
In 1999, the average grant towards the operational expenditures per pupil per year amounted to DKK
Danish krone
The krone is the official currency of the Kingdom of Denmark consisting of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is subdivided into 100 øre...
34,134 (USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5,500) and the average fees paid by the parents amounted to DKK 6,942 (USD 1,100).
Private schools can be roughly divided into the following categories:
- Small "Grundtvigian" independent schools in rural districts.
- ReligiousReligionReligion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
or congregational schools, such as CatholicCatholicismCatholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
or Danish mission schools - Progressive free schools
- International SchoolsInternational schoolAn International school is loosely defined as a school that promotes international education, in an international environment, either by adopting an international curriculum such as that of the International Baccalaureate or Cambridge International Examinations, or by following a national...
such as Copenhagen International SchoolCopenhagen International SchoolCopenhagen International School is an international, co-educational day school located in Hellerup, a suburb of Copenhagen, Denmark. The student body consists of around 600 members representing over 50 different nationalities with English as the primary language of instruction... - Schools with a particular pedagogical objective, such as the WaldorfWaldorf- People :* William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor , financier and statesman* Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor , businessman and politician- Communities :United States* Waldorf, Maryland* Waldorf, MinnesotaGermany...
schools - GermanGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
minority schools - Immigrant schools such as MuslimMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
schools
Private schools are recognised and receive government financing regardless of the ideological, religious, political, or ethnic motivation behind their establishment. Some private schools are very old, some quite new, and new ones are added all the time. It is characteristic of the private schools that they are smaller than municipal schools.
All that is demanded of private schools is that their teaching equal that of the municipal schools. The Ministry of Education confers on private schools the right to use the final examinations of the Folkeskole, thereby exercising a certain extent of quality control. In principle, however, it is not up to any government authority but to the parents of each private school to check that its performance measures up to the demands set for the municipal schools.
The parents must themselves choose a supervisor to check the pupils' level of achievement in Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, arithmetic
Arithmetic
Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of combining numbers...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. If the school is found inadequate, the supervisor must report it to the municipal school authority. In extraordinary circumstances, the Ministry of Education may establish special supervision, for example if there is reason to believe that the school teaches a subject so poorly that it may give the pupils problems later on in life.
Levels and Age Groups
The Folkeskole consists of a voluntary pre-school class, the 9-year obligatory course and a voluntary 11th year and a year in the beginning. It thus caters for pupils aged 6 to 17.The comprehensive concept of the Folkeskole enables students to remain in the same student group with the same classmates from the 1st to the 10th (or 11th) form, sharing the same experiences in all subjects with peers of all types of backgrounds and covering the whole range of ability.
The new act, which came into effect for the school year 1994-95, has abolished the division of the subjects of arithmetic
Arithmetic
Arithmetic or arithmetics is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics, used by almost everyone, for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of combining numbers...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
into basic and advanced level courses in the 8th to 10th forms, introducing a system of differentiated teaching, by which the teachers have to adapt their teaching to the prerequisites of the individual pupil.
General Objectives
Section 1 of the Act of the Folkeskole of 1994 states that:"The Folkeskole shall — in co-operation with the parents — further the pupils' acquisition of knowledge, skills, working methods and ways of expressing themselves and thus contribute to the all-round personal development of the individual pupil.
"The Folkeskole shall endeavour to create such opportunities for experience, industry and absorption that the pupils develop awareness, imagination and an urge to learn, so that they acquire confidence in their own possibilities and a background for forming independent judgements and for taking personal action.
"The Folkeskole shall familiarise the pupils with Danish culture and contribute to their understanding of other cultures and of man's interaction with nature. The school shall prepare the pupils for active participation, joint responsibility, rights and duties in a society based on freedom and democracy. The teaching of the school and its daily life must therefore build on intellectual freedom, equality and democracy."
Subjects of the Folkeskole
The subjects taught in the Folkeskole can be divided into obligatory subjects and topics offered throughout the entire period of the Folkeskole and optional subjects and topics offered in the 8th to 10th year of the Folkeskole.Obligatory Subjects
The teaching in the nine-year basic school covers the following subjects which are compulsory for all pupils:Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
studies — including in the oldest forms instruction in foreign religions and other philosophies of life, PE and sport, and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
during the entire 10-year period; English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
from the 4th to the 10th year; history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
from the 4rd to the 10th year; music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
from the 2nd to the 7th year; science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
from the 1st to the 7th year; art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
from the 1st to the 6th year; social studies
Social studies
Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...
from the 8th to the 10th year; geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
1 and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
2 from the 8th to the 10th year; physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
in the 8th to 10th year; needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
, wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
- or metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
work and cooking
Cooking
Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...
for one or more years between the 5th and 10th year.
The instruction in the basic school furthermore comprises the following obligatory topics: traffic safety, health
Health education
Health education is the profession of educating people about health. Areas within this profession encompass environmental health, physical health, social health, emotional health, intellectual health, and spiritual health...
and sex education
Sex education
Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
and family planning
Family planning
Family planning is the planning of when to have children, and the use of birth control and other techniques to implement such plans. Other techniques commonly used include sexuality education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and...
as well as educational, vocational and labour market orientation.
Optional Subjects
The second foreign language, GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
or French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, must be offered in the 7th to 9th year.
The following optional subjects and topics may be offered to the pupils in the 8th to 10th year: French or German as a third foreign language, word processing
Word processing
Word processing is the creation of documents using a word processor. It can also refer to advanced shorthand techniques, sometimes used in specialized contexts with a specially modified typewriter.-External links:...
, technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
, wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
- or metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
work, home economics
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
, engine knowledge
Engine
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert energy into useful mechanical motion. Heat engines, including internal combustion engines and external combustion engines burn a fuel to create heat which is then used to create motion...
, other workshop subjects, and vocational studies. Furthermore, Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
may be offered to the pupils in the 10th year.
The teaching in the 10th form comprises the following subjects as obligatory subjects: Danish
Danish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
to an extent corresponding to a total of 14 lessons a week (i.e. half of the minimum weekly teaching time). Instruction must be offered in PE and sport, Christian studies and religious education, social studies and physics or chemistry. Furthermore, pupils who have chosen German or French as second foreign language in the 7th to 9th years must be offered continued instruction in that subject in the 10th year.
The pupils in the 8th to 10th year must choose at least one optional subject.
Subjects
So all in all the subjects are: DanishDanish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
, Religion studies, mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, PE
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
. This are all the basic classes, and then there are the later classes: Home economics
Home Economics
Home economics is the profession and field of study that deals with the economics and management of the home and community...
, Chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, Social studies
Social studies
Social studies is the "integrated study of the social sciences and humanities to promote civic competence," as defined by the American National Council for the Social Studies...
, needlework
Needlework
Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...
, Wood Work, Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
. Unlike some other countries, you don't dissect animals in Biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
in Denmark.
Pupil Evaluation
There are two ways of carrying out evaluation in the Folkeskole: continuous evaluation and the evaluation made at examinations.Continuous Evaluation
The student's benefit from the teaching is being evaluated on a continuous basis. This evaluation forms the basis of the guidance of the individual pupil with a view to the further planning of the teaching.In addition to the basic skills, the Folkeskole is required by law to help promote the personal and social development of each individual student according to their capability. Working methods are modified towards the pupil's attainment of greater self-reliance and maturity. This aspect of pedagogic policy requires close co-operation between school and home, and an ongoing dialogue is sought between teachers, parents and pupils.
The act is very clear on this point, requiring that pupils and parents be regularly informed of the school's opinion about how each student is profiting from their schooling. In this case, regularly means at least twice a year and refers explicitly to information as to the students's personal and social development as well as his purely academic attainment.
In the 1st to 8th year, information is given either in writing or, which is more common, as part of the conversational exchanges between all three parties: pupil, parents and class teacher - which are a regular feature of Danish school life.
In the 9th to 11th year, the information system is increased to include a written report at least twice a year giving the pupil's * standpoint in academic achievement and in application. For pupils at this level, the evaluation of the level of attainment in the individual subjects is expressed in marks.
Marks are given according to the 7-point marking scale indicating the performance of the pupil:
- 12: For an excellent performance.
- 10: For a very good performance.
- 7: For a good performance.
- 4: For a fair performance.
- 02: For an adequate performance.
- 00: For an inadequate performance.
- -3: For an unacceptable performance.
The last such marks are given immediately before the written examinations and express the pupils' proficiency in the subject at that particular time.
The marking scale was changed April 2007 (order by Danish ministry of Education, Order no. 262 of 20 March 2007), to be comparable to the ECTS grading scale
ECTS grading scale
The ECTS grading scale is a grading system defined in the ECTS framework by the European Commission. Since many different grading systems co-exist in Europe, and considering that interpretation of grades varies considerably from one country to another, if not from one institution to another, the...
:
- The grade 12 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to an A on the ECTS scale
- The grade 10 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to a B on the ECTS scale
- The grade 7 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to a C on the ECTS scale
- The grade 4 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to a D on the ECTS scale
- The grade 02 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to an E on the ECTS scale
- The grade 00 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to an Fx on the ECTS scale
- The grade -3 on the 7-point grading scale corresponds to an F on the ECTS scale