“If a bricklayer builds a house and it collapses, people will look at the bricklayer. As teachers, we must do the same.”

Tobias Bennedsen, a primary school teacher in Middelfart Municipality, is dismayed that so many people are failing their 9th grade. And he could easily choose a private school for his future children.

You just had your 9th grade class in Christianity. How many of them won’t pass their final exams?

“I don’t think I have anyone who gets an average of less than 2 in Danish. That’s actually pretty good compared to a national average of 11.8 percent who fail. But it can also scare me because it means that there are schools where things look much worse.”