"In Denmark, high school is a time for learning and making mistakes, not for constantly taking exams."

CopenhagenDenmark is one of the countries that, year after year, leads the rankings in student competency, with an education system that is characterized by being completely free from primary school to university, and which differs significantly from the teaching system in Catalonia. Carolina Diarte (46 years old, born in Castellar del Vallès), knows this well. She has lived in the Scandinavian country for 18 years, where she has worked as a secondary school teacher for 15 years. She didn't expect to end up teaching in a high school in Denmark, but after meeting her Danish partner in Japan, they decided to live together in Copenhagen. Carolina had studied translation and interpreting in Barcelona, ​​​​which helped her find work as a teacher.

Rysensteen Gymnasium, where Carolina teaches English and Spanish, is a public high school in the center of the Danish capital. In the teachers' lounge where we conducted the interview, wooden lights combined with designer furniture and colorful pillows give it a cozy, very Nordic feel. For Carolina, her beginnings as a teacher in Denmark were not entirely easy, as she felt very unsure of the language: "But it also helped me tell the students that I fully understand the effort involved in learning a new language."

More autonomy and less hierarchy

In Denmark, Gymnasium education is the equivalent of high school, but this stage is divided into three years (typically from ages 16 to 19), although the system is flexible and it's very common for students to start later. Before starting high school, many choose to spend a year studying abroad, or at Efterskole, a residential school where young people learn to live away from home for the first time and specialize in subjects such as sports, nature, music, or art for a year. With this prior experience, "they are highly motivated and feel more prepared to start high school," Carolina notes. Another peculiarity of the Danish system "is that most students work part-time, many of them in shops, restaurants, or supermarkets, while completing their high school studies." In addition, students also receive financial assistance from the government, ranging from 500 to 800 euros per month, "which gives them a degree of financial independence from their parents, which is noticeable in their maturity when they start high school," Carolina explains.

Perhaps reflecting the Nordic country's atmosphere, in the classroom, "the hierarchy and authority between teacher and student is quite blurred," Carolina notes, something that also shocked her in her early days as a teacher. "They see you as an adult figure who serves as a role model in the classroom and in whom they trust," she says, "although this also has a negative side because sometimes you have to establish order," she acknowledges.

Although the Gymnasium is the first step toward university entrance, in Denmark this educational stage is not focused on preparing students for university entrance exams: "On the contrary, there is no textbook in class, and the content of the subjects is partly decided by the students," says Carolina. In the case of English classes, "students arrive with a very good level of knowledge of the language," she acknowledges, which allows classes to focus on other topics such as literature, history, or current affairs, such as the US elections or Brexit: "It's a lot more work for the teacher to prepare the classes, but it makes them much more stimulating," says Carolina. According to her, the topics that interest her students most "are inequality and politics, because they feel they don't know enough."

Few exams

As a method of assessment, Carolina explains that there are very few exams, and some of them are oral: "Here, learning is very important, and high school is considered a three-year stage to learn and make mistakes, and not because of constant assessments, there is more calm and a different energy," she admits. At the institute, students are also encouraged to get involved in voluntary activities: "We have a club for running "Or a shared breakfast where students sing songs, starting the day and classes with energy," he says. "Others help seniors with shopping or whatever they need."

The use of technology and mobile phones in the classroom is also a hot topic in Denmark. The Ministry of Education announced in February that mobile phones will be banned in schools, both in class and during leisure time. Although the country was a pioneer in incorporating technology into the classroom, the process is now being reversed: "We have a mix of an analog system with paper and pencil, and computers to implement artificial intelligence. This is a challenge that remains unresolved." Other challenges faced at the high school, she says, include social isolation and the loneliness of some students: "The fact that there are young people who don't know how to relate to each other is quite difficult to deal with as teachers, but we have a lot of work and we can't always keep up with it."

All in all, Carolina says she's satisfied as a teacher in the country: "Salaries are high, although we have fewer vacation days than in Catalonia." Regarding the educational level, she also believes her students graduate prepared to face university: "The system works and the statistics prove it; when they finish, you can see they've learned. Furthermore, they have a voice in deciding what subjects they study and how, which makes them much more involved in their learning." Finally, she concludes, "when they finish school, you can see they're adults."