In Denmark there are 550 free schools with about 110.000 pupils.
These are independent from - and an alternative to - state schools.
The schools can choose to use an ideology of religious, political or pedagogical nature as the foundation for their school. This is the reason why there is a big diversity in free schools.
Read more on our tradition for free school, or get acquainted with the biennial international conferences below.
Where did the idea of free schools come from?
The free schools were built on the ideas of N.F.S. Grundtvig and Christen Kold 150 years ago.
In their perspective, learning takes place in many other places than in the books and in the school; learning is instead lifelong, and the individuals' responsibility, not the state's. This started a long tradition of free schools.
The Danish free schools have existed for more than 150 years.
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