Education Minister Magnus Heunicke told a parliamentary consultation on Tuesday that inclusion in Danish public schools has failed, and said the government will soon propose legislation to restore respect for teachers’ authority.
According to reporting by DR, Heunicke of the Social Democrats was summoned to an open consultation in the Folketing on September 22. He was asked what the government intends to do about Denmark’s historically poor PISA results.
The minister said the inclusion law had not worked, despite good intentions behind it. He described it as dishonest to claim there was room for every pupil in the folkeskole. Schools should remain inclusive, he said, but that requires investment.
The statement came as DR spoke with several local teachers’ associations. All of them pointed to the inclusion task as the single largest factor weakening academic quality in the classroom.
In Odense, the work of accommodating all pupils and their varying needs affects teaching quality, per Charlotte Holm, chair of Odense Lærerforening. She said inclusion cannot be handled by a single teacher alone. Morten Kamstrup Mikkelsen, chair of Himmerlands Lærerkreds, said learning does not take place when a few pupils absorb too much of the teacher’s time.
Heunicke did not rule out placing more adults in some classrooms. He said that would apply to certain subjects, year groups and classes, rather than two teachers in every class.
Focus on teachers’ authority
The minister said parents also carry responsibility for supporting the teacher as a natural authority in children’s lives. He criticized situations where pupils complain at home and parents then write to teachers via the school platform Aula. Teachers spend large amounts of time defending themselves, he said.
Heunicke used the consultation to signal that the government will soon introduce a bill aimed at restoring respect for teachers’ authority. The specialist publication Folkeskolen reported that the planned legislation would strengthen preventive measures in mainstream schools. It would also make it easier to identify pupils who need special support or special education.
The PISA results, published two weeks earlier, showed that pupils in Danish public schools have become markedly weaker in reading and mathematics. They were the worst Danish results since the PISA assessments began in 2000. Gordon Ørskov Madsen, chair of Danmarks Lærerforening, called them a disaster in slow motion.
School researcher Andreas Rasch-Christensen described the figures as worrying, DR reports. Vibeke Tornhøj Christensen, a senior researcher at the research center VIVE and one of the researchers behind the PISA study, said she was surprised. Politicians across the Folketing reacted with shock at the results in science, mathematics and reading.
Shortly after the results were published, the government leadership held a press conference. It proposed a total ban on mobile phones in classrooms and a tripartite process on schools involving teachers, parent organizations and pupils.
