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EDUCATION

‘Kids learn how to behave’: What you think of Danish schools

We asked our readers in Denmark for their impressions of the country’s school system.

'Kids learn how to behave': What you think of Danish schools
Photo: Ida Guldbæk Arentsen/Ritzau Scanpix

Denmark's schoolgoers performed relatively poorly in science subjects compared to kids in other OECD countries in a recent global education ranking.

In the Pisa education ranking, Danish teens ranked higher than the average for OECD countries in mathematics and reading, meanwhile.

Danish education is often seen as an effective and healthy model, in which the well-being of pupils is primary, but recent years have seen changes and reforms implemented, challenging the whole system, as we have reported in the past.

We asked for your experiences with the school system in Denmark, and what advice you would give to foreign residents. Thank you to all who got in touch.

“(My) kids are happy to go there, they learn how to behave, to take care of the environment, and many practical things,” wrote one reader, who gave her name as Aurelia.

Danish schools promote a “free way of thinking” with “happy teachers and students”, she added.

“If you don't know something you can ask for more explanation,” she said.

Comparing to schools in Romania, Aurelia also praised Danish schools for avoiding a focus on “theoretical information that you don't use.”

But she also felt that schools in Denmark could be “more clean and (it should not) be mandatory to bring food for lunch”.

Denmark was also praised by one of our readers for its relatively accessible private schools.

READ ALSO: Why Copenhagen is the cheapest city in Europe for international schools

The concept of the state letting parents decide to send their child to a different school of their choice that is outside the state system and in return paying 70-80 percent of the fees, is a great one,” said Alan Dunwiddie.

Government subsidization of private schools helps make Denmark the European country with the lowest maximum costs for international private schools, with little variation in prices, lending weight to Dunwiddie's comment.

But education can promote “a very Danish-centric, ‘Denmark is wonderful’ mindset to impressionable young minds”, he also said.

Others praised Danish education for its teaching style.

There is no excessive emphasis on “book knowledge” and good focus on “social effectiveness and creativity”, Kapil Sharma wrote.

Schools are “good at giving feedback if (a) kid is suffering due to an issue”, Sharma added.

Those views were broadly agreed with by another reader, Juan Pablo.

“(Schools) let children be children. (They) pay more attention to social connection, not the academic study. Students are normally very relaxed in the school,” he said.

However, discipline can be lacking in schools, in Juan Pablo’s view.

“Sometimes it is very noisy,” he wrote.

What advice do you have for foreign residents whose children are to attend school in Denmark?

“See what kind of person the headteacher is. Talk with the teachers and try to have a tour before enrol your child. Many schools offer special Danish classes for foreign students”: Juan Pablo.

“Visit many schools and kindergartens if you plan to send your kid to public school. Assess the situation and keep questions ready. Proactively ask about the growth of your kid”: Kapil Sharma.

“Private school is a godsend… It allows you to make the choices and, in my experience, has better quality, more motivated teachers”: Alan Dunwiddie.

READ ALSO: Should Denmark allow fewer young people to graduate upper secondary school?

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EDUCATION

Sweden’s Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

Sweden's opposition Social Democrats have called for a total ban on the establishment of new profit-making free schools, in a sign the party may be toughening its policies on profit-making in the welfare sector.

Sweden's Social Democrats call for ban on new free schools

“We want the state to slam on the emergency brakes and bring in a ban on establishing [new schools],” the party’s leader, Magdalena Andersson, said at a press conference.

“We think the Swedish people should be making the decisions on the Swedish school system, and not big school corporations whose main driver is making a profit.” 

Almost a fifth of pupils in Sweden attend one of the country’s 3,900 primary and secondary “free schools”, first introduced in the country in the early 1990s. 

Even though three quarters of the schools are run by private companies on a for-profit basis, they are 100 percent state funded, with schools given money for each pupil. 

This system has come in for criticism in recent years, with profit-making schools blamed for increasing segregation, contributing to declining educational standards and for grade inflation. 

In the run-up to the 2022 election, Andersson called for a ban on the companies being able to distribute profits to their owners in the form of dividends, calling for all profits to be reinvested in the school system.  

READ ALSO: Sweden’s pioneering for-profit ‘free schools’ under fire 

Andersson said that the new ban on establishing free schools could be achieved by extending a law banning the establishment of religious free schools, brought in while they were in power, to cover all free schools. 

“It’s possible to use that legislation as a base and so develop this new law quite rapidly,” Andersson said, adding that this law would be the first step along the way to a total ban on profit-making schools in Sweden. 

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