Report on the compulsory form level 9 school-leaving examinations

15-03-2019

Report no. 11/2018

The purpose of this study is to assess whether the Ministry of Education is monitoring and supporting the municipal schools adequately in their efforts to ensure that all students take the compulsory form level 9 examinations, as prescribed by the Folkeskole Act. The report answers the following questions: 

  • Is the Ministry of Education preparing for and supporting implementation of the amendment to the act from 2006 by developing rules and launching initiatives in the form of guidance and counselling to schools and municipalities?
  • Is the Ministry of Education collecting comprehensive, true and fair data and subsequently drawing up specifications and analyses that shed light on the form level 9 examinations?
  • Is the Ministry of Education's supervision, to an adequate extent, capturing the schools that for several years in succession struggle with high rates of non-attendance at the form level 9 examinations?  

It is Rigsrevisionen's overall assessment that the Ministry of Education has not adequately supervised the area and supported the public schools in their efforts to ensure that students complete form level 9 by taking all the compulsory form level 9 examinations prescribed by the Folkeskole Act.

Rigsrevisionen notes that the Ministry of Education has supported the implementation of the law amendments concerning the compulsory form level 9 examinations in a satisfactory manner through communication of regulations and through a general information campaign, for example. 

The study also shows that the Ministry of Education's supervision of the quality of the public schools does not capture the schools that for several years in succession struggle with high rates of non-attendance at the compulsory form level 9 examinations. Based on that finding, it is Rigsrevisionen's assessment that the supervision in this area is inadequate.  

Rigsrevisionen initiated the study in April 2018.

Read the introduction and conclusion (PDF)