According to the Danish Constitution, all children of compulsory education age have a right to free education in the ["Folkeskole"]. Parents or persons with legal custody of children, who see to it themselves that the children receive instruction, which meets the general requirements set to the teaching in the ["Folkeskole"], are not obliged to enrol their children in the ["Folkeskole"].

In 1994, a new Act on the ["Folkeskole"] came into effect, which contains innovations in a number of fields. Fundamentally, the ["Folkeskole"] must have room for all, and all pupils shall be entitled to instruction and to showing their abilities in the broadest sense of the word. The main element of this new act is the abolishment of the course-division after the 7th form and the consequent introduction of differentiated teaching.

Recent years have seen comprehensive reforms in the entire education system. The common denominator is:

• modernisation of the courses of education
• greater freedom to reign for the institutions, and
• a more efficient financial control.

Through decentralisation and increased local autonomy, the decision-making is now largely left to the institutions in cooperation with the local community.

At the same time, the system of detailed control has been replaced by target and framework management, whereby the overall targets and requirements are laid down at central level and the implementation of these are left to the local authorities and the individual schools.

It must be underlined that in Denmark it is education - and not schooling - that is compulsory. Compulsory education means an obligation to participate in the teaching provided in the ["Folkeskole"] or in teaching which is comparable to what is generally required in the ["Folkeskole"].

Compulsory education commences on 1 August of the calendar year of a child's 7th birthday and terminates on 31 July of the year, in which he or she has received regular instruction for 9 years, not including the pre-school class.

Persons, who have custody of children of school age, shall see to it that the children meet the compulsory education requirement and must not obstruct this. It is the responsibility of the headteacher to make sure that the children enrolled in the school attend the instruction given. An attendance register is kept on a daily basis, in which absences, if any, are recorded. If a child fails to attend the instruction, the parents shall - personally or in writing - inform the school of the cause of the child's absence. The headteacher decides on the sanctions which are to be initiated in the case of non-compliance with the obligation of compulsory education.

Diagram of the Danish education system

Diagram of the Danish education system

Age	Higher education(age 19+)	Short-cycle courses		Medium-cycle courses	Long-cycle courses
19
18	Youth education (age 15/16-18/19	Social and health education	Vocational education and training	Upper secondary level General upper secondary ("Gymnasier"+"HF") Vocational upper secondary ("HHX"+"HTX")
17
16
15	Compulsory education(age 6/7-15/16)	"Folkeskolen" Primary and lower secondary school 1st-9th/10th class
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6	Pre-school (age 0-6)	Pre-school class
5		Kindergarten Crèche
4

As it appears from the diagram above, the Danish education system consists of a one-year voluntary pre-school class, see [Chapter 3], and a 9/10-year primary and lower secondary school, see [Chapter 4], after which the pupils will have to make their choice of school career between the academically oriented courses of general upper secondary education offered by the ["Gymnasiums"]/the ["HF"]-courses and the practically oriented vocational education and training courses or the vocational upper secondary courses offered by the vocational schools, see [Chapter 5]. The next choice of further studies is made at the age of 19/20 between higher education studies at university and non-university institutions of higher education, see [Chapter 6].

In recent years, State control of every detail has been replaced by overall target and framework management, where decisions regarding details are left to the individual educational institutions and the users of the education system.

The central point in this reform of the education system has been that innovation and quality are best created through decentralisation of competence and responsibility to the institutions thus creating a certain minimum of competition between them.

Within the framework of the legislation, the main responsibility for education in Denmark lies with the Ministry of Education (excluding nurseries and kindergartens, vocational adult education, and some higher education courses within the performing arts), the political control of which lies with the Minister of Education, who is a member of government. There is a tradition for continuity in the Danish public administration. Therefore, high ranking civil servants are only very rarely politically appointed.

The Ministry of Education is made up of 7 departments and 1 directorate, each consisting of a number of divisions. They are:

1. the International Department, which has special functions of a more general nature (e.g. international cooperation, accounts, statistics and the auxilliary functions of the ministry).
2. the Department of Economic Affairs, which is responsible for budgets and economic affairs.
3. the Department of Primary and Lower Secondary Education, which is responsible for educational matters relating to the ["Folkeskole"].
4. the Department of Upper Secondary Education, which is responsible for educational matters relating to the ["Gymnasium"] and the ["HF"].
5. the Department of Vocational Education and Training, which is responsible for matters relating to vocational education and training and short-cycle non-university higher education courses.
6. the Department of Higher Education, which is responsible for medium- and long-cycle university and non-university higher education.
7. the Department of Youth and Adult Education, which is responsible for matters relating to general adult education, the ["folkehøjskole"], ["folkeoplysning"] etc.
8. the Building Directorate, which is responsible for the planning of the construction of buildings for educational purposes.

In addition to these, there are the Minister's Secretariat and the "Department of Legal and Educational Policy".

Nurseries, municipal day-care centres, kindergartens and integrated institutions are regulated by the Social Assistance Act and belong under the Ministry of Social Affairs, which has the overall responsibility of this area of education.

Pre-school classes are regulated by the Act on the ["Folkeskole"] and belong under the Ministry of Education, which has the overall responsibility of this area of education.

As the Danish ["Folkeskole"] is a comprehensive school which includes the entire period of compulsory schooling, i.e. both primary and lower secondary education.

Within the framework of the law, the Ministry of Education issues the principal regulations and orders for the conduct of the ["Folkeskole"]. It thus lays down regulations pertaining to the aims of the teaching in each subject and topic, and it issues curriculum guidelines for the individual subjects as well as guidelines for the distribution of lessons.

And it is the highest instance of appeal in cases relating to salary and the appointment of teachers and also in questions regarding the extensive system of special educational assistance.

The secondary level divides into general upper secondary education and vocational secondary education.