GYMNASIUM

Everybody in Denmark goes to school until they are around 16. Some children go to private schools, but the overwhelming majority go to the local comprehensive. Thereafter, paths diverge. If you are academic, you go on to a 3-year sixth-form called gymnasium (itself divided into general, technical or business schools); if you are not, you either learn a trade or try to get a job.

This being Denmark, where education is free and people are tolerant, "academic" doesn't have the same undertones as it would in (say) the U.K. There are no entrance exams for gymnasium, for instance, all that is required is that your existing school says that you are capable of it. And even if they don't, you can still apply and have a good chance of getting in.

However, just like everything else in the expensive Danish public sector, this situation can't last. Which is why the Government has just put forward proposals for reform. Fewer subject choices, clearer goals, more mathematics and more hours in class, are efficiency measures that will be fairly uncontroversial. The big sticking point is entrance grade requirements.

The minority Government's proposal sets the bar low, merely a 02 (equivalent to the UK's E grade) in maths and English. Their left-wing supporters will be loth to raise it; the right-wing opposition thinks it should be raised to 4 (a D) or even a 7 (C).

With a general election next year, and cross-party agreement that education reforms need the widest possible support, there will be intense discussions on this over the course of the next few months. My guess is that the reform will end up at 4. Though we may have to wait until after the election before that happens.

Walter Blotscher