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Education in Denmark |
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Secondary education in Denmark (in Danish: ungdomsuddannelse, "youth education") usually takes two to four years and is attended by students between the ages of 15 and 19, after finish primary education by 9th or 10th grade. Secondary education is not compulsory, but usually free of charge, and students have a wide range of programmes to choose from. Some education programmes are oriented towards higher education, the most common being the Gymnasium . Others are more practically orientated, training students for jobs such as artisans or clerks through a combination of instruction in vocational schools and apprenticeship. [1]
The Gymnasium has its origin in the cathedral and monastery schools established by the Roman Catholic Church in the early Middle Ages, and seven of the schools established in the 12th and 13th centuries still exist today. The medieval schools had, broadly speaking, only one purpose: to educate the servants of the Catholic Church by teaching them to read, write, and speak Latin and Greek. After the Reformation's official implementation in 1536, the schools were taken over by the Crown; their primary purpose remained preparing students for theological studies, only now it was for the benefit of the Protestant Church.
This educational base remained nearly unchanged until 1809, when the old Clergyman's School was transformed, in accordance with the spirit of the time, into a humanistic Civil Servant's School, the purpose of which was to "foster true humanity" through immersion in the ancient Greek and Latin cultures combined with some teaching of natural science and modern languages.
In 1871, the scientific and technical development of the 19th century led to a division of the education curriculum into two lines: the languages and the mathematics-science line. This division remained the backbone of the structure of the Gymnasium until the year 2005, when a major reform of the Gymnasium was enacted. Today, each Gymnasium offers a selection of lines decided by each individual Gymnasium. These typically include various linguistic, scientific, and creative lines, as well as combined-subject lines.
In 1903, the languages line was divided into a classical line, preserving extensive teaching in Latin and Greek, and a modern languages line, in which Latin and Greek were replaced by English, German, and French. At the same time, the three-year course of the Gymnasium was directly connected with the municipal school through the establishment of the mellemskole ("middle school", grades 6–9), later to be replaced by the realskole.
According to the latest reform, the Gymnasium still offers three years of general upper secondary education in two lines. The division of the two lines into three branches each has however been replaced by a more flexible system, under which each of the lines contains a core curriculum of obligatory subjects and a number of optional subjects which can be taken at two levels.
The Higher Preparatory Examination (HF) was introduced in 1967 in a political climate that was characterised by a desire to extend educational possibilities to new groups in society. Originally, it was the idea to create a two-year course aimed specifically at prospective candidates for teacher training. There was however a concern that this concept might result in an educational cul-de-sac. So the course design was changed into an alternative route to further and higher education.
The students that were entering the new HF-programmes were mainly adults. But from the start, the HF also appealed to young people who for social or personal reasons had not followed the straight route via the Gymnasium to higher education.
The HF is thus the "sweeper" of the general upper secondary education level. In the Gymnasium, there is still an overrepresentation of middle class children (40% male/60% female), whereas the HF recruits its predominantly female students from a broader base of society (30% male/70% female).
The Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX) started in 1888 on a private initiative at Niels Brock's Business College in Copenhagen with a structure, which can mostly be found in the course today. The range of subjects comprised both commercial and general subjects.
In 1920, the Rigsdag (the parliament of the time) adopted the first business college act, which i.a. entitled the Niels Brock Business College to call itself a "higher business school". This act introduced supervision of the activities of the business colleges, and the HHX became a State-controlled examination. In 1927, the first ministerial orders were issued regarding the content of the teaching which in all essentials dealt with the existing teaching.
The course was managed by the Ministry of Trade until 1965, when the responsibility was transferred to the Ministry of Education.
The HHX did not originally qualify for admission to universities and other higher education institutions in the university sector. The universities did not consider the general part of the programme sufficient. It was not until 1972, that the HHX was given the status of a university entrance examination in connection with a revision of the content, along with the introduction of more rigorous admission requirements. At the beginning of the 1970s, about half of the Danish business colleges offered the programme. By 1982, the course was offered at all Danish business colleges.
The Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX) was established on an experimental basis in 1982. The reason for its establishment was a desire to contribute to a broader supply of education and training possibilities following the EFG-basic courses and a desire to create a new and relevant way of access to higher education in the technical area. In this context, it was of importance that fewer and fewer skilled workers continued at the engineering colleges, whereas the number of general upper secondary graduates increased significantly.
Another reason for establishing the HTX-programme on an experimental basis was the need to strengthen the status of the technical schools. Broad education and training possibilities at the schools were to provide a broader and qualitatively better recruitment.
In 1982, the HTX-experiment was carried out at the technical schools in Sønderborg, Aalborg, and Copenhagen. The pilot period lasted until the spring of 1988, after which the programme was evaluated and made permanent after minor adjustments had been made to the individual subjects. On the same occasion, the HTX-examination was granted the status of a university entrance examination, and the graduates were now in principle placed on an equal footing with those of the Gymnasium, the HF and the HHX programmes as far as access to higher education was concerned.
The upper secondary courses are at three levels: level C (1 year), level B (2 years) and level A (3 years), of which the following subjects are compulsories:
STX | HTX | HHX | |
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13 subjects in total | 11 subjects in total | 11 subjects in total | |
Compulsory A-level subjects: | minimum of 4 subjects | minimum of 3 subjects | minimum of 4 subjects |
Danish | Danish | Danish | |
History | Technical Science* | English | |
Compulsory B-level subjects: | minimum of 3 subjects | minimum of 5 subjects | minimum of 6 subjects |
2nd foreign language | Chemistry | 2nd foreign language | |
English | English | Business Economics | |
Mathematics | Contemporary History | ||
Physics | International Economics | ||
Technology | Marketing | ||
History of Ideas | Mathematics | ||
Compulsory C-level subjects: | |||
Classical Studies | Biology | Commercial Law | |
Culture Science* | Information Technology or Communication & ICT | Information Technology | |
Mathematics | Social Science | Social Science | |
Natural Sciences* | |||
Natural Sciences* | |||
Physical Education and Sport (PE) | |||
Physics | |||
Religious Studies | |||
Social Science | |||
Electives | |||
Arabic B- or A-level | Astronomy C-level | Astronomy C-level | |
Astronomy C-level | Biology B-level | Business Economics C or A-level | |
Biology C-, B- or A-level | Biotechnology B- or A-level | Chinese B- or A-level | |
Business Economics C-level | Business Economics C-level | Commercial Law B-level | |
Chemistry C-, B- or. A-level | Chemistry A-level | Cultural Studies C- or B-level | |
Chinese B- or A-level | Communication & ICT A-level | Design C- or B-level | |
Cultural Studies C- or B-level | Cultural Studies C- or B-level | Financing C- or B-level | |
Dance C- or B-level | Design C- or B-level | French Advanced Level B or A | |
Design & architecture C- or B-level | English A-level | French Intermediate Level A | |
Drama C- or B-level | Financing C-level | German Advanced Level B or A | |
English A-level | German Advanced Level B or A | German Intermediate Level A | |
French Advanced Level B or A | Information Technology C- or B-level | Example | |
French Intermediate Level A | Innovation C- or B-level | Information Technology B-level | |
German Advanced Level B or A | International Technology and Culture C-level | Innovation C- or B-level | |
German Intermediate Level A | Marketing B-level | International Economics A-level | |
Greek C- or A-level | Marketing Communication C-level | International Technology and Culture C-level | |
Information Technology C-level | Mathematics A-level | Marketing A-level | |
Innovation C- or B-level | Media Studies C-level | Marketing Communication C-level | |
International Technology and Culture C-level | Music- & Sound Production C-level | Mathematics A-level | |
Italian B- or A-level | Organizational Studies C-level | Media Studies C- or B-level | |
Japanese B- or A-level | Philosophy C-level | Music- & Sound Production C-level | |
Latin C-, B- or A-level | Physical Education and Sport (PE) C- or B-level | Organizational Studies C-level | |
Mathematics B- or A-level | Physics A-level | Philosophy C-level | |
Media Studies C-, B- or A-level | Programming C- or B-level | Physical Education and Sport (PE) C- or B-level | |
Music C-, B- or A-level | Psychology C- or B-level | Programming C-level | |
Natural Geography C- or B-level | Social Science B-level | Psychology C- or B-level | |
Organizational Studies C-level | Statistics C-level | Russian A-level | |
Philosophy C- or B-level | Technology A-level | Social Science B-level | |
Physical Education and Sport (PE) B-level | Technology of Materials C-level | Spanish A-level | |
Physics B- or A-level | Theory of Static and Strength C-level | Statistics C-level | |
Programming C- or B-level | Theory of Static and Strength C-level | ||
Psychology C- or B-level | |||
Religious Studies B-level | |||
Rhetoric C-level | |||
Russian B- or. A-level | |||
Social Science B- or A-level | |||
Spanish A-level | |||
Statistics C-level | |||
Technology C-level | |||
Theory of Static and Strength C-level | |||
Turkish B- or A-level | |||
Visual Arts C- or B-level |
This section deals with the vocational education and training and basic social and health education programmes.
Apprenticeship training in a well-organised form originates in the guilds of the Middle Ages. Each trade had its own guild in each town. The guilds fixed the duration of the training of apprentices, their wages and working conditions and the disciplines they were to learn. It was furthermore the guilds which held the journeymen's tests.
The basic social and health education programmes (SOSU) were introduced in 1991, and the basic education programme for educator assistants was introduced in 1997. These programmes form part of the vocational upper secondary education system in Denmark.
Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft as an artisan, trade as a tradesperson, or work as a technician. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with requisite skill. Vocational education is known by a variety of names, depending on the country concerned, including career and technical education, or acronyms such as TVET and TAFE.
Education in the Netherlands is characterized by division: education is oriented toward the needs and background of the pupil. Education is divided over schools for different age groups, some of which are divided in streams for different educational levels. Schools are furthermore divided in public, special (religious), and general-special (neutral) schools, although there are also a few private schools. The Dutch grading scale runs from 1 to 10 (outstanding).
Gymnasium is a term in various European languages for a secondary school that prepares students for higher education at a university. It is comparable to the US English term preparatory high school. Before the 20th century, the gymnasium system was a widespread feature of educational systems throughout many European countries.
Education in Slovakia consists of a free education system based on 10 years of compulsory school attendance.
Education in Greece is centralized and governed by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs at all grade levels in elementary and middle school. The Ministry exercises control over public schools, formulates and implements legislation, administers the budget, coordinates national level university entrance examinations, sets up the national curriculum, appoints public school teaching staff, and coordinates other services.
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. This qualifies a student for admission to higher education Preparatory, subject to the special entrance regulations applying to the individual higher education programmes. Colloquially, gymnasium refers to what is formally called STX.
The Higher Preparatory Examination is a 2-year general upper secondary programme building on to the 10th form of the Folkeskole and leading to the higher preparatory examination, which qualifies for admission to higher education, subject to the special entrance regulations applying to the individual higher education programmes.
In Denmark, the Higher Technical Examination Programme is a 3-year vocationally oriented general upper secondary programme which builds on the 10th-11th form of the Folkeskole. It leads to the higher technical examination, the HTX-examination, which permits a student to qualify for admission to higher education, subject to the special entrance regulations that apply to the individual course. The programme gives special attention to scientific, technical and communicative subjects. HTX graduates may study at any Danish technical, scientific or traditional university as well as technical and technological academy (akademi) or college (professionshøjskole).
Education in Norway is mandatory for all children aged from 6 to 16. Schools are typically divided into two divisions: primary and lower secondary schooling. The majority of schools in Norway are municipal, where local governments fund and manage administration. Primary and lower secondary schools are available free of charge for all Norwegian citizens as a given right.
The system of education in Iceland is divided in four levels: playschool, compulsory, upper secondary and higher, and is similar to that of other Nordic countries. Education is mandatory for children aged 6–16. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are very few private schools in the country. Iceland is a country with gymnasia.
Vocational secondary education in Denmark takes place at special state-funded vocational schools (erhvervsskoler), most of which are either technical schools or business colleges (handelsskoler). The creation of vocational training began as early as the 1400s, but wasn't fully established until 1875 when Denmark passed legislation that would allow for the use of government grants towards technical and training schools. Vocational training schools are jointly run by business and trade associations, such as unions who hope to create a form of stream-lined training into the labour force. Through a combination of teaching in vocational schools and apprenticeship, mostly in private companies, students are trained for work in eight specific fields which include: construction, commerce, metal, agriculture, transportation, food, service, and media.
The first documented school in Lithuania was established in 1387 at Vilnius Cathedral. The school network was influenced by the Christianization of Lithuania. Several types of schools were present in medieval Lithuania – cathedral schools, where pupils were prepared for priesthood; parish schools, offering elementary education; and home schools dedicated to educating the children of the Lithuanian nobility. Before Vilnius University was established in 1579, Lithuanians seeking higher education attended universities in foreign cities, including Kraków, Prague, and Leipzig, among others. During the Interbellum a national university – Vytautas Magnus University was founded in Kaunas.
Ishøj Gymnasium was a secondary school located in Ishøj near Copenhagen, Denmark.
The Danish Voksenuddannelsescentre is the general adult education programme which is part of the public education system in Denmark. There are 29 adult education centres (VUCs) in Denmark.
The levels of education in the Faroe Islands are primary, secondary and higher education. Most institutions are funded by the state; there are few private schools in the country. Education is compulsory for 9 years between the ages of 7 and 16.
Viby Gymnasium is a school of secondary education in the neighborhood Viby J in Aarhus, Denmark. The school offers the 2 year Higher Preparatory Examination (HF) programme, the 3 year Matriculation examination (STX) programme and a vocational programme (EUX).
Aarhus Business College is a business school of secondary education in Aarhus, Denmark. The school offers educational programmes in business and management on a secondary level to post-primary youth, Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX) and supplementary courses for adults seeking to maintain qualifications. Last but not least Aarhus Business College has two new types of educations called EUX Business and EUD Business. EUX is an education that combines a 2-year secondary education with a 2-year internship in a company, and EUD is 1 year in school and a 2-year internship in a company. It is an independent self-owned institution under the Danish government, managed by a board composed of members from the business community in conjunction with a rector that oversees day-to-day operations. The school is located on three addresses in Aarhus: Campus Sønderhøj in Viby J and the two campuses of HHX in Risskov and Viby J.
Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College, usually referred to simply as Niels Brock, is a school of secondary education and post-secondary education in Copenhagen, Denmark. The school offers programmes within business and management including Vocational Education and Training (VET), Higher Commercial Examination Programme (HHX), Bachelor in Business Administration, Master in International Business Management, Master of Business Administration, and supplementary courses for adults seeking to maintain qualifications. It is an independent self-governing institution under the Danish education system, managed by a board composed of members from the business community in conjunction with a rector that oversees day-to-day operations.
Copenhagen Technical College is a school of secondary education in Copenhagen, Denmark. The school offers educational programmes within the technical sciences on a secondary level to post-primary youth, Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX), and supplementary courses for adults seeking to maintain qualifications (AMU). It is an independent self-owning institution under the Danish state, managed by a board composed of members from the business community in conjunction with a rector that oversees day-to-day operations. It occupies nine locations in the Greater Copenhagen area with the headquarters being located in Valby.