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The Danish education system is sophisticated and offers free access to public school, high school and most kinds of higher education (universities etc.). About 99% of the general population attend elementary school (lasting 9 to 10 years); 86% attend secondary school and 41% pursue further education. It 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. |
Denmark Information: Inside
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