About a third of all Danish 15-year-olds spend a year finding themselves at an “efterskole”, a kind of boarding school where the focus is more on personal growth.
It’s a time for the teens to cut ties with their parents and test out communal living free of most constraints, often in the countryside.
The aim is to spend a year “finding out who you are, how to live your life and how the community functions,” said Mette Sanggaard, the director of Ollerup Efterskole in a small village on the island of Fyn.
“The whole school is organised around this” quest, she added.
Each “efterskole” sets its own curriculum, which typically includes core subjects like maths, Danish and English, while some also offer a focus on music, sports or drama.
But there are no grades.
Teens who do not attend an “efterskole” start their final three years of secondary school straight away.
Danish students also have the option to do a “10th” year of school after their compulsory nine years − which is also not graded.
Ollerup Efterskole, which has a focus on music, welcomes around 100 students each year.
With a month left of her year at the school, Siri Krause has only positive things to say.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself… I think you also just learn which type of people you like to be around,” she said.
“The only thing you can dislike about it is that you have to do a lot of stuff on your own… cleaning your room and washing your clothes and stuff like that,” said Krause, the eldest of three children.
At the school, the teens are expected to clean their rooms and communal areas and help prepare meals.
Other than that and their studies, they’re free to socialise as much as they like.
“It can be socially draining sometimes,” Krause admitted.
Privately-run
In Krause’s room, which she shares with two friends, the walls are adorned with photos and posters and a heavy smell of perfume lingers in the air.
The room has a bathroom, a dressing table and two sets of bunk beds overlooking a field.
“It’s beginning to get a little bit warmer, so we are outside a lot, just sitting on a blanket and chatting or doing something, playing music or drawing,” said Krause’s roommate Ella Munoz.
Their English class was also being held outside to take advantage of the sunny weather.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself… I think you also just learn which type of people you like to be around”
In Denmark, education is free, paid for by taxes.
Attending an “efterskole”, however, has a cost. The schools are run privately under contract with the state.
A year at Ollerup costs between €9,000 and €13,200, and are subsidised relative to parents’ income. The cheapest schools cost €6,500 a year.
Despite the cost, the schools are not considered elite and remain popular among Denmark’s middle classes.
‘The whole person’
The “efterskole” idea dates back to the 19th century, when Nikolai Grundtvig, a pastor and philosopher, asserted that education should be accessible to everyone and anchored in languages and culture and foster independence.
Teachers don’t just teach at “efterskoles”, they also live in student residences and spend the day with the teens.
“The adults are both teachers and supervisors, in charge of communal living,” Sanggaard said.
“We work with the whole person,” noted Anne Lindekilde, a former journalist who now teaches French, Danish and art at Ollerup.
After a year at an “efterskole”, students can rejoin the regular school system to begin their last three years of secondary school.
Research has shown that teens who complete “efterskole” are “more likely to start and finish high school”, said Ulla Hojmark, associate professor at the University of Aalborg.
At Ollerup, most of the students are preparing to return to the regular school system in the autumn.
“It’s kind of scary that school is going to be over and then you have to go to high school and do real school work and not just be kind of chill about it,” said Krause.
While hugely popular in Denmark, the concept has yet to be successfully exported.
Ireland has a “transition year”, during which students of a similar age can spend a year learning anything from arts to car maintenance, languages to psychology, or even get work experience.
Hollywood stars Cillian Murphy and Paul Mescal have both credited the year for turning them on to acting.
Only one “efterskole” has been opened abroad, in South Korea, but it later closed because of a lack of funding.
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