The Liberal Alliance in Denmark is advocating for financial penalties for high schools that demonstrate a pattern of inflating grades for female students and students with immigrant backgrounds, particularly when annual grades significantly exceed exam performance. This proposal stems from a recent review identifying 18 schools where the disparity between annual grades and exam results is notably higher than the national average over several years.

The Liberal Alliance’s spokesperson on foreigners, Steffen Larsen, emphasizes that this inconsistency undermines the integrity of the education system and fosters distrust. He argues that artificially inflated grades can unfairly disadvantage students seeking admission to competitive university programs.

The Agency for Education and Quality’s review, which analyzed grade data from 18 schools, revealed a substantial discrepancy between annual grades and exam grades, especially in mathematics, for both 2023 and 2024. At these schools, annual grades were typically two to three points higher than exam grades.

The review also indicated that the difference between average annual grades and average exam grades was more pronounced for female students and those with a non-Western background compared to their male and Danish background counterparts. Liberal Alliance views this as “pure madness” and is proposing a “sanction ladder” for non-compliant schools.

The proposed sanctions include reducing per-student funding for the high schools and eliminating the weight of annual grades in students’ applications for further education. Larsen pointed out cases where grade differences reached as high as five levels, with students failing exams despite high annual grades.

While the affected schools are located throughout Denmark, eight are situated in Copenhagen or North Zealand. Five of the institutions – NEXT – Vestskoven (hhx), U/NORD Hillerød Gymnasium (hhx), Høng Gymnasium og HF (stx), Nordsjællands Grundskole og Gymnasium samt Hf (stx) Københavns åbne Gymnasium (stx) – will be called to a meeting with the agency to discuss implemented initiatives and potential solutions to reduce grade differences.

Minister of Education Mattias Tesfaye (S) stated that he will await the completion of the inspection before determining if further action is necessary. Anni Matthiesen, education spokesperson for Venstre, is also open to considering sanctions if the situation cannot be rectified through dialogue and oversight. “We really need to keep a close eye on this, both because it is unfair and because it risks spreading. There must be confidence in the examination systems,” she said.

Meanwhile, high school principals urge caution and suggest awaiting the outcome of ongoing discussions with the schools in question before implementing sanctions. Maja Bødtcher-Hansen, chairman of Danish Gymnasiums, emphasized the importance of grade consistency across schools but believes that most high schools are operating appropriately.

Larsen also seeks to extend the investigation to primary and lower secondary schools to determine if similar discrepancies exist there, given their role as gateways to high school education. Possible explanations offered by the high schools for the grade discrepancies include the differences in conditions between written exams and coursework, and teacher changes affecting students’ preparation for exams.