Several hundred teacher students in Denmark cannot begin their mandatory school internships this week, because police have put the issuing of child certificates on hold.
According to DR, students at Københavns Professionshøjskole were due to move from lecture halls into classrooms in mid September. Oliver Bech, a fourth-year teacher student, was set to spend the next eight weeks at a school in Holte.
Bech, who is training to teach Danish, history and physical education, told DR the situation is frustrating. He said he had prepared for the internship throughout the school year.
Københavns Professionshøjskole states that 1,400 students were scheduled to start internships this week, and that several hundred are blocked. Søren Eriksen, resource director at the institution, described it as a terribly unfortunate situation. He said a good start to the internship period is very important for the students.
Why the certificates are on hold
Rigspolitiet announced on September 3, 2026 that child certificates and weapons permits were being paused, as noted on the national police news page. The pause is linked to a deletion error in the Central Criminal Register, where certain convictions were removed too early.
Rigspolitiet informed DR that it expects the problem to be solved within a short time. Eriksen said the institution is following the case closely. If a solution arrives within a couple of days, he said, the lost time will be manageable.
The Organisation for Professionshøjskolestuderende estimates that between 2,000 and 3,000 students nationwide could be affected. The same figures were reported by BT on September 15, 2026.
Bech told DR that a delay of more than a week would become critical for him. The internship period is required for approval of his bachelor project, because it provides the empirical material for it.
Nanna Thea Mulvad Johansen, chair of the Organisation for Professionshøjskolestuderende, wrote to DR that prolonged problems could delay some students’ programs. She stated it would not be reasonable for students to carry the educational consequences of an administrative error they cannot influence.
The organisation also says students in other fields may run into the same barrier in the coming weeks. It lists nursing students along with physiotherapy, radiography, biomedical laboratory science and occupational therapy students. If the problems continue, according to Johansen, social work students could be affected as well.
