New figures for Denmark’s ninth-grade final exams show that 10.5 percent of pupils in the 2025/26 school year did not pass both Danish and mathematics.
The national results for the ninth-grade leaving exams have now been published, DR reports. Slightly more than one in ten pupils failed to reach the minimum grade of 2 in both Danish and mathematics.
The exams themselves were held several months ago in school gyms and classrooms across the country. The combined figures for the 2025/26 school year have only landed now, according to DR.
Andreas Rasch-Christensen, a school researcher at VIA University College, told DR the share is too high. He said those pupils are initially blocked from moving on to upper secondary education programs.
The average grade across the compulsory ninth-grade exams stands at 7.3. As reported by DR, that figure is on the same level as the past four years.
Rasch-Christensen described the combination of an almost unchanged average and the continued failure rate as worrying. He pointed to a folkeskole that is challenged in supporting the academic development of all pupils.
He singled out groups that struggle in school and come from families with fewer resources. Those pupils, in his assessment, are not being adequately supported across the results.
Figures follow last week’s PISA report
The exam results arrive one week after a discouraging PISA study. That survey established that Danish school pupils have become weaker in mathematics, reading and science, per DR.
Rasch-Christensen said he assessed the exam figures with last week’s PISA findings in mind. Looking across both sets of numbers, he sees a primary and lower secondary school system under pressure.
Denmark’s municipalities were summoned to an emergency meeting on Monday morning to discuss the folkeskole. Ahead of the meeting, a school leader called for focus on pupils with immigrant backgrounds, according to DR.
That group performs markedly worse in the PISA survey than children without an immigrant background. DR reports this as the stated reason for the call to prioritize the group.
Passing Danish and mathematics at the minimum grade of 2 is tied to access to youth education programs. DR reports that pupils below that threshold do not, in the first instance, gain that access.
