Representations   Denmark

Name

Danske Gymnasieelevers Sammenslutning - DGS
Union of Danish Upper Secondary School Students

Erhvervsskolernes Elev Organisation - EEO
Vocational school student organisation

Landssammenslutningen af Handelskoleelever - LH
National Federation of Business Students in Denmark

Type of Members

DGS:

EEO: Schools

LH: Student Councils

Amount of members

DGS:

EEO: 23 (Makes 70% of all students)

LH: 54 (Makes 70% of all schools)

General Assembly

DGS:

EEO: 70

LH:

Budget

DGS:

EEO: About € 130,000

Mainly from Ministry of Education and Danish Youth Council.

LH:

Organisation's Staff

DGS:

EEO: 4 students, working 15 hours a week each.

LH:

Year of Foundation

DGS:

EEO: 1996

LH: 1979

Basic Structure

Other Student Unions

Danske Skoleelever (DSE) - Organisation for primary school students

Danske Studerendes Fællesråd (DSF) - National Union of Students in Denmark, organisation for university students

Student Representations

By law students have the right to a student counsel and they have the facilities for this. Students also have two seats in the boards of the schools, while only one has the right to vote.

Students at School Level

Vocational schools in Denmark vary with the extent to which students are represented.
Some schools do much more for the student involvement, granting money, hiring teachers to take care of the student counsel, granting them seats in all other decision making bodies, but that is definitely not all schools.

Students in Municipal or Governmental Bodies

Student organizations are representing the students in different committees under the Ministry of Education.

Success

It always depends on school - in some schools students are listened to seriously, in other not so much. On the national level the influence of student organisation is not so great, but always making small steps forward.

EEO has experience when students took over and manage to do the change. At one school there were problems with few teacher, but President of the School Board and the Headmaster didn't listened. EEO helped to organise the strike and encourage students to fight to be listened. At the end President and Headmaster were fired, and students are now part of the decision making in the school.

Hurdles

EEO: We have problems with our student being at the school for such a short period. Most are on the school for 20 to 40 weeks, which means that they don’t have much time to get into student decision-making, before they go out to get practical experience.

Issues

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