A submission to The Danish Reform Commission
The Danish education system is a success story. Never before have so many young people completed secondary education. Never before have so many pursued higher education. Youth unemployment is at a record low – both historically and in international comparison. But there is a downside to the story. It is the story of a society that, despite its prosperity, political objectives, and decades of reforms, has failed to fulfill its ambition of giving all children and young people the opportunity to get an education and find their way into the labor market. It is the story of an education system which, despite its many qualities, produces and reinforces marginalisation, dissatisfaction and vulnerability, and fails to create the right framework for learning and development for a large group of children and young people. The result can be seen in the statistics, which show that almost 50,000 young people aged 15-24 are unemployed and are not in education or training. This has been the case for decades. Thousands of young people never realize their potential, but are slowly disconnected from society. This has enormous consequences – both for the individual young person and for our society. As a society, we have a shared responsibility to create pathways to a good life with communities, education, and work for all young people – regardless of their circumstances. This requires us to bury some of the assumptions about what shapes young people's choices, opportunities, and desires in relation to education and working life, which have driven the reform agenda of recent decades and therefore permeate the system today. We must lift our gaze from the statistics and listen to the people involved. And then we must recognize that the problem does not lie with the 50,000 young people. They are not lazy, wrong, or maladjusted. It is a societal problem that we must invest in solving. We must engage across the public system, the business community, and civil society—and we must dare to discuss and grapple with the structures, norms, and approaches that exist in the system surrounding children and young people today, and which we know do not work. With this input, the Paths for Everyone partnership wants Paths for Everyone inspire The Danish Reform Commission, decision-makers, and actors in the field on how we can begin to work on fundamental changes to the system. The basis for the input is the experiences and perspectives of young experts who themselves have struggled to find their way into education, jobs, and communities, knowledge about effective ingredients in innovative youth initiatives, and ideas and perspectives from more than 40 leaders and organisations society. It is our young experts who have set the direction for where we need to start changing the system if we are to succeed, and it is their dreams for a better future that have been our guiding star. We submit our proposal with humility in the face of the great task that lies ahead of us all and with the hope that we can contribute to sowing the seeds for a new reform agenda in the coming years. We are ready to contribute. Enjoy reading!
