Muslim children do not feel welcome in public school

Many say they feel more accepted in private schools

Danish public schools, folkeskolen, are not very welcoming to Muslim children, according to some educators.

“Many children who come to us from a public school have felt left out, misunderstood and stigmatised,” Line Mansour, the headteacher at the Muslim school Nord-Vest Privatskole, told DR Nyheder. “They come to us because they are looking for community, security and identity.”

READ MORE: School fined for giving Muslim student choice she had to refuse

Figures from Dansk Friskoleforening, the Danish free school association, showed that the number of children going to Muslim schools has increased by 20 percent, from 3,945 in 2009 to 4,738 students in 2012. The increase in the numbers going to private schools overall was just 13 percent.

Sweden does it better
Sidsel Vive Jensen, an education researcher at KORA – a municipal analysis and research group – said that Danish public schools do not understand highly-religious students.

“Schools in Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands are more focused on religious differences and try to handle the differences more directly instead of pretending they are not there,” said Jensen.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.