Information about Gymnasium (denmark)

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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 studentereksamen, literally "student's exam"). This qualifies a student for admission to higher education, subject to the special entrance regulations applying to the individual higher education programmes.

Apart from the common gymnasium, there are other types of academically-oriented upper secondary education in Denmark, the main ones being højere handelseksamen ("Higher Commercial Examination Programme"), højere teknisk eksamen ("Higher Technical Examination Programme") and højere forberedelseseksamen ("Higher Preparatory Examination Programme").

Gymnasium

Types of Institutions

The academically-oriented general upper secondary education which leads to the upper secondary school exit examination is offered at approximately 140 Gymnasiums of varying size, distributed all over Denmark. The smallest Gymnasium has 76 students, the largest 760 (2000).

The upper secondary school leaving examination can also be taken within special 2-year courses for adult students.

Admission Requirements

In order to be admitted to the first year of the Gymnasium, pupils must have completed the 9th form of basic school.

All pupils that have received the relevant education and passed the prescribed examinations can continue to an upper secondary programme of more or less their own choosing.

Access, however, is not always automatically granted to general upper secondary programmes. If a school finds that the pupil and their parents are not taking the education and guidance provided seriously, and/or that there is a risk that the pupil will not be able to meet the requirements of the general upper secondary programmes, the pupil may be recommended to sit for an admission test to one of the general upper secondary programmes.

Subjects and Specialisation

When a student is admitted to the Gymnasium, he chooses a studieretning ("line of study") between a number of different lines with different subjects; these lines are customised by the local school leadership. Each school has to have at least one line focusing on mathematics and natural science, one focusing on foreign languages, and one focusing on social studies.

At the beginning of the course, the students are divided into classes, usually based on their choice of line, and each student takes all his obligatory subjects together with his class, but with a different teacher for each subject.

The course of instruction lasts three years and comprises obligatory subjects common to all students, subjects that are part of the student's line of study, and optional subjects. Many subjects can be studied at different levels, called A, B and C; A is the highest level which usually means the student has two study this subject for all three years of the Gymnasium course.

The obligatory subjects for all students are: classical studies (level C), religious studies (C), Danish (A), English (B), history (A), mathematics (C), physics (C), physical education (C), and social studies (C). In addition, while English is compulsory for all, each student also has to study another modern foreign language at level B (the most common are German, French and Spanish). The student is also required to study an artistic subject (e.g. music or visual arts) at level C, and two of the subjects biology (C), chemistry (C) and physical geography (C). Most of the obligatory subjects can be studied at a higher level if the student elects to do so.

The optional subjects are: astronomy, biology, business economics, chemistry, computer science, design, drama, Greek, media-subject, Latin, music, physical geography, philosophy, psychology, rhetorics, study of technology, visual arts, and others. It is also possible to study a third and even a fourth foreign language.

There are certain requirements as to how many subjects each student has to take and at how high levels. For instance, all students have to take at least four subjects at level A (there are two compulsory subjects at this the highest level: Danish and History), and all students have to take a natural science subject at level B.

General Objectives

In continuation of the 9th form of the basic school, the Gymnasium provides a 3-year course of continued general education. This covers the necessary basis for further studies and is completed by an examination (the upper secondary school exit examination). The upper secondary school exit examination, called studentereksamen in Danish, qualifies the student for admission to higher education, subject to regulations. The teaching must furthermore contribute to the pupils’ personal development and enlightenment, developing their interest in and ability to participate actively in a democratic society.

Instruction

At the commencement of the instruction, the teacher either prepares a plan for the autumn term's teaching in collaboration with the students or informs the students of such a plan. In the later phases of the instruction, the teacher and the students plan the work together. The teacher and the students regularly discuss the instruction given. Instruction in the individual classes is co-ordinated with a view to achieving a coherence between the different subjects and a suitable distribution of the student's workload.

The instruction is usually organised as a combination of lecture, group work, practical experiments, and homework.

Certification

The authority responsible for the content and examinations is the Ministry of Education.

The title of the examination taken at the end of the Gymnasium is the "Studentereksamen". Students, who have passed the "studentereksamen", are presented with a certificate, which contains the following information:

• all marks for the year's work,
• examination marks, including marks for the years work in subjects in which there has been no examination,
• the two average figures,
• the examination result, etc.

The certificate is signed by the headmaster of the Gymnasium where the examination has been taken. Certificates are drawn up by the Ministry of Education. Only one original certificate may be issued. A copy, including a translated certificate (the certificate is translated into English, German and French) must be designated 'copy'.

Ministerial regulations (concerning the award of credits in connection with teaching and examinations) are issued to students who have followed the instruction and taken examinations from other programmes at upper secondary level.

Teachers

The students have different teachers for different subjects, and it is normal that these teachers stay with a class for an entire course. A teacher usually holds a combined master's degree in two different subjects which are the only subjects which that teacher is qualified to teach. In addition to their university studies, newly employed teachers take a pædagogicum which is a two year part-time course in pedagogy.

History

The studentereksamen was an entrance exam carried out by the University until 1850 where gymnasiums (then called lærde skoler ("learned schools") or latinskoler ("Latin schools")) started examining the students. In 1871, the gymnasium education was divided into the mathematical-scientific and lingual-historical lines of study. At the same time, the entrance exam at university for self-taught people was abolished. Women were not allowed to take the studentereksamen until 1875.

In 1903, the lines of study were changed to mathematical-scientific, modern-lingual, and classical-lingual, and the name of the schools was officially changed to gymnasium. From 1958 there were two lines of study, mathematical-scientific and lingual, and after first year, the students had to choose between different branches (e.g. modern languages or classical languages). This system was however changed in 1988, where the students in their second year were able to choose more freely between a variety of subjects (a student could for instance have both a language and a scientific subject at the highest level, even if he had originally chosen the mathematical line of study).

The two line system was abolished in 2005 and the gymnasium was completely re-formed. More lines of study, decided by each gymnasium itself, were offered, and it was generally perceived to give a greater amount of customisability to the students. Instead of choosing a line of study when enrolling, the students now only let the school now what line they intend to choose, and the final decision is made after half a year of introduction to the different faculties (primarily the arts, languages and natural science). Furthermore, a wide range of general subjects, like for instance social studies, were made mandatory.

See also

• Gymnasium (school)
• Secondary education in Denmark
• Other academically oriented upper secondary programmes in Denmark:
• Higher Preparatory Examination (HF)
• Higher Commercial Examination Programme
• Higher Technical Examination Programme (HTX)
• Student cap