More than one in ten Danish ninth graders left school this summer without passing both Danish and mathematics, according to the national exam results published on September 14.
The complete overview of the 2025/26 ninth grade leaving exams has now been released, as reported by DR. The overall grade average is in line with previous years. But 10.5 percent of pupils finished without a passing grade in both core subjects.
In a separate summary of the same figures, DR puts the average grade in the compulsory exam subjects at 7.3. A DR data overview of results at individual schools repeats the same national figures.
At Hærvejsskolen in Rødekro in Aabenraa Municipality, this year’s results are slightly better than last year. School leader Pernille Reschat still sees a widening gap between pupils. According to Reschat, the strongest pupils have improved further, while those who struggle are performing worse.
Reschat links the slide to motivation. As stated by the school leader, many pupils find it hard to see the point of going to school. She says exams appear completely irrelevant to a number of young people.
Failure rate above 9 percent since 2022
DR’s figures show how the share of pupils leaving without passing Danish and mathematics has developed. It was 6.9 percent in 2018/19, then fell to 4.3 percent in 2019/20 and 3.4 percent in 2020/21. It stood at 3.8 percent in 2021/22.
The share then jumped to 9.8 percent in 2022/23 and 10.1 percent in 2023/24. It was 9.9 percent in 2024/25 before rising to 10.5 percent this year. DR notes that fewer exams were held during the corona years, so grades in 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 were fully or partly based on teacher assessments.
Hærvejsskolen is working to bring pupils who lag behind up to the level of the rest, with particular focus on the upper grades. Per Reschat, the school tries to find differentiated solutions and to support pupils closely around the exams. She says it works for some pupils, but not for enough of them.
The exam overview comes shortly after the PISA study, published last week, identified significant problems with reading and numeracy skills among Danish pupils. The party leaders in the government have since announced that there should be a total ban on screens in schools.
The government has also announced a larger restructuring of the folkeskole. According to DR, the plan is to be developed by a school tripartite involving school leaders, teachers and other stakeholders.
