This country policy profile on education in Denmark is part of the Education Policy Outlook series. Building on the first country policy profile for Denmark (2014), it offers a concise analysis of where the education system stands today in terms of strengths, challenges and ongoing policy efforts, and how this compares to other systems. The profile brings together over a decade's worth of policy analysis by the Education Policy Outlook, as well as the latest OECD data, relevant thematic and country-specific work and other international and national evidence. It also offers analysis of Denmark’s system's initial responses to the COVID-19 crisis and provides insight into approaches to building greater responsiveness and resilience for the future.

This background report, prepared as upstream work for the Starting Strong V publication, offers a description and analysis of Denmark's specific context and policies on the Transitions between ECEC and Primary Education, including : The transition system and its organization, local responsibility, school start, political/societal attention, curriculum, pedagogy, policies for vulnerable children, staff, developmental continuity and the related main challenges.

The effective use of school resources is a policy priority across OECD countries. The OECD Reviews of School Resources explore how resources can be governed, distributed, utilised and managed to improve the quality, equity and efficiency of school education. The series considers four types of resources: financial resources, such as public funding of individual schools; human resources, such as teachers, school leaders and education administrators; physical resources, such as location, buildings and equipment; and other resources, such as learning time. This series offers timely policy advice to both governments and the education community. It includes both country reports and thematic studies.

This policy profile on education in Denmark is part of the Education Policy Outlook series, which presents comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries. Building on the OECD's substantial comparative and sectorial policy knowledge base, the series offers a comparative outlook on education policy by providing analysis of individual countries' educational context, challenges and policies (education policy profiles), analysis of international trends, and insight on policies and reforms on selected topics.

Higher level vocational education and training (VET) programmes are facing rapid change and intensifying challenges. What type of training is needed to meet the needs of changing economies? How should the programmes be funded? How should they be linked to academic and university programmes? How can employers and unions be engaged? This country report on Denmark looks at these and other questions, and is part of the Skills beyond School series, OECD policy reviews of postsecondary vocational education and training.

How can student assessment, teacher appraisal, school evaluation and system evaluation bring about real gains in performance across a country's school system? This book provides, for Denmark, an independent analysis from an international perspective of major issues facing the evaluation and assessment framework in education, current policy initiatives, and possible future approaches. This series forms part of the OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes.

The immigrant population in Denmark is one of the smallest in Western Europe but is made up of highly diverse groups coming from about 200 different countries. Compared to their native Danish peers, immigrant students, on average, leave compulsory education with significantly weaker performance levels in reading, mathematics and science. Immigrant students are more likely to go to the vocational education and training (VET) sector, which qualifies primarily for access to the labour market. There is scope to develop the capacities of leaders and teachers in schools and VET colleges; build on the existing framework for teaching Danish as a Second Language by standardising structure and mainstreaming the language support offered across all municipalities and school types; involve immigrants' parents and communities as partners in children's education; and strengthen monitoring and evaluation at all levels of the system to ensure migrant education policies are implemented and effective.

The present country report describes the context of the policies and provisions related to support and aid for students with disabilities or learning difficulties in Denmark. The primary focus of the report is on the current policies and provisions as well as the key factors that are influencing transition policies in the educational field for disabled students. However, the report also includes references and descriptions of related factors in the field of employment. The report is structured according to the guidelines for country reports proposed by the OECD and covers the following topics: definitions of disability; data; policy and future developments; funding; provisions; support services; informational and learning resources as well as parental involvement.

This is one in a series of country case reports prepared as part of the study on Digital Learning Resources as Systemic Innovation. The overall aim of the study is to review and evaluate the process of innovation involved in policies and public as well as private initiatives designed to promote the development, distribution and use of DLR for the school sector. In so doing, the activity will bring together evidence of: how countries go about initiating ICT-based educational innovations related to DLR, the players and processes involved, the knowledge base which is drawn on, and the procedures and criteria for assessing progress and outcomes; What factors influence the success of policies aimed at promoting ICT-based educational innovations, particularly those related to the production, distribution and use of DLR including user involvement in the production process and new actors such as the gaming industry and media companies; User-driven innovations related to DLR, carried out by learners and teachers, such as innovative production and use of DLR, and how the educational system responds to such innovations.

Many adults in OECD countries have low language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) skills. The consequences of these low foundation skills span the economic, health and social well-being of individuals, families and communities. Investment in this sector of adult education is therefore crucial. This country report on Denmark examines the impact and implementation of different teaching, learning and assessment practices for adult LLN learners with a focus on formative assessment; the way innovative programmes address the very diverse needs and goals of this population; and the policies that support or hinder effective practice.

The introductory section of this report provides a brief overview of the Danish Vocational Education ans Training (VET) system followed by a short description of the three case studies selected for the study. As these form the main focus of the report they are described and discussed in more depth in later sections. The three cases were selected by Danish officials, in collaboration with the OECD/CERI Secretariat. as they formed the basis of some of the most important changes in VET in recent years.

The report provides an overview of school leadership developments and issues in Denmark, as a contribution to the OECD's Improving School Leadership Activity. It discusses the national context of schooling, the features of the school system, school governance and leardership, the attractiveness of school leaders' roles, and professional learning of school leaders in the country.

This OECD Review of the Danish university system examines such aspects as governance, funding, the Research Council System, the Danish knowledge system, the university system itself, universities' interaction with society, and outcomes. It finds that training and research is of high quality, but that the system needs to change in response to rapidly changing demands. A number of recommendations are put forward, particularly in the area of university governance and steering of the system by the government.

There is a particular interest in assessment policy at Ministry level. Formative assessment is considered necessary for differentiated teaching that benefits all students. This is clear in the demand that educational planning - including choice of teaching approaches, methods, teaching materials and content - in all subjects shall meet the objectives of the Folkeskole and shall be varied in order to take care of the needs of the individual student. The Danish ‘Folkeskole' consists of an optional one year of pre-school at age six, a compulsory nineyear basic school and an optional 10th year.

The results of PISA 2000, OECD's groundbreaking comparison of the educational outcomes of 15-year-olds, shook the belief of Danes that theirs was the best education system in the world. In this report, a team of examiners determines why Denmark did worse than expected and recommends a series of steps to better evaluate performance, to overcome the effects of family backgrounds on student outcomes, to better equip school leaders and teachers, and to enhance the flexibility of the agreement governing tasks and hours of school staff.

This report on Denmark's educational Research and Development is the fourth OECD review of a member country's educational R&D policy and system. The purpose of the OECD review of a national educational R&D system is to assess the extent to which it serves its function of creating, collating, distributing and applying the knowledge on which practitioners and policy makers can draw. The aim is broader and different from a traditional educational R&D review that focuses on the quality of the research. Rather each of these reviews should be considered as an evaluation of the R&D system which, if it functions properly, will produce high quality research that contributes to the knowledge base of policy makers and practitioners and may be applied by them to improve the education service within a country.

This report begins with a broad description of the political, demographical, economic and cultural development, which forms the challenges for the school and the teachers' profession. The subject is further developed in the following chapters. The second part continues to describe the characteristics of the school system, including the uppersecondary system and vocational education, both the context of the educational institutions and their organisation and political control. Chapter 3 Attracting motivated people to the teaching profession; Chapter 4 Basic, supplementary and further training of teachers; Chapter 5 Recruitment, selection and employment of teachers; Chapter 6 Retention of effective teachers in school. Each chapter is prefaced with a presentation of current political themes, after which development pattern and causal relationship are described. As a conclusion, relevant political initiatives in the area are gathered and their effects assessed.

The main purpose of the thematic review on adult learning is to understand adults' access and participation in education and training and to enhance policies and approaches to increase incentives for adults to undertake learning activities in OECD countries. It is a joint activity undertaken by the OECD Education Committee (EDC) and the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Committee (ELSAC) in response to the need to make lifelong learning a reality for all, to improve learning opportunities of low skilled and disadvantaged adults and to sustain and increase employability.

This review covers children from birth to compulsory school age and includes the transition period into primary schooling. In order to examine thoroughly what children experience in the first years of life, the review has adopted a broad, holistic approach to study early childhood policy and provision. To that end, consideration has been given to the roles of families, communities and other environmental influences on children's early learning and development. Particular emphasis has been laid on aspects concerning quality, access and equity, with an emphasis on policy development in the following areas: regulations; staffing; programme content and implementation; family engagement and support; funding and financing.

In our rapidly changing and globalised society where permanent adaptation to new economic and social standards is a prerequisite for a successful integration in the labour market, the transition from initial education to working life has become of prime importance. It is therefore necessary to focus on the interfaces between education and training and the labour market affecting transition processes and outcomes and the role of guidance and counselling in this process.

There is widespread recognition of the importance of education and training for Denmark. The OECD Examiners of youth education in Denmark observed: "Given the economic realities, and its lack of natural resources, Denmark is highly dependent on the skills, qualifications, inventiveness and entrepreneurship of its people." The commitment to education that these realities entail is evident in the recent vigorous developments of policy. One of the purposes of the present thematic review is to indicate where, from the reviewers' perspective, effort in the first years of tertiary education might be further concentrated.