The Education in Denmark series

Pre-School Folkeskole Secondary Higher Education Adult Education

Gymnasium Higher Preparatory Examination Higher Commercial Examination Programme Higher Technical Examination Programme Vocational Upper Secondary Education Vocational Education and Training Basic Social and Health Education

Danish Education System is a sophisticated system designed to educatate the people of Denmark. The Danish education system has its origin in the cathedral- and monastery schools established by the 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. After the Reformation, which was officially implemented in 1536, the schools were taken over by the Crown, but their purpose was still to prepare the students for theological studies by teaching them to read, write and speak Latin and Greek, although it now was for the benefit of the Protestant Church.

This educational base was maintained 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 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 into two lines: the languages and the mathematics-science line. A division which still is the backbone of the structure of the Gymnasium today.

In 1903, Latin and Greek were replaced by English, German, and French as the main subjects of the languages line. At the same time, the 3-year course of the Gymnasium was directly connected the municipal school through the establishment of the middle school (grades 6-9), which was later on replaced by the real school.

Today, education in Denmark is broken down into six age groups:

• Pre-School Education
• Folkeskole Education
• Secondary Education
• Higher Education
• Adult Education

External link

• Undervisnings Ministeriet (Education Ministry) http://www.uvm.dk