The government is fighting the “Islamization” of Denmark through a student placement agreement based on parental income. Students are demonstrating in front of parliament.

The Danish government has entered into a political agreement with its supporting parties, the Danish People’s Party and the Christian Democrats, under which high school students must be forcibly distributed to high schools based on their parents’ income. This prompted a number of students to demonstrate yesterday, Tuesday, in front of the Danish Parliament building to protest the parliamentary agreement, which may force them to go to schools in different areas relatively far from their places of residence, based on their parents’ income.

The outlines of the agreement were announced in June of last year, and the Minister for Children and Education, Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, stated at the time that it would completely change the culture and “fight the Islamization of the country.“ She added, ”We do not want Danish students to be a minority in a formally Danish school. Simply put, it is not fair to Danish children and parents to go to such a school, where you can be assimilated into Arab culture… What we are addressing here is that secondary schools in and around major cities have become distorted in their composition – socially and, to a certain extent, also ethnically.“.

Read also | European report on racism: Denmark criticized for rising hatred against Muslims

The agreement was concluded in June of last year between the government (Social Democratic Party), the Socialist People's Party, the Unity List, the Radical Party, the Danish People's Party, the Christian Democrats, and the Alternative Party. The protesting students' demand is to pressure the Radical Party to withdraw from the agreement, thereby depriving it of its parliamentary majority, especially after the Danish People's Party withdrew, having changed its mind and no longer supporting the agreement on allocating students in secondary schools across the country based on parental income. As Chairman of the Board Morten Messerschmitt told Berlingske: "The current agreement is not beneficial to secondary school students. It has simply proven to contain too many negative elements, and therefore we no longer support it.".

The Radical Party is prepared to withdraw from the agreement if the issue of “lottery” in the high school placement process, which the party objects to, is not reconsidered. At the same time, the Radicals want to ensure that new high school students will be able to get a place at a nearby high school if they do not get one of their top four choices.

One of the students, who was with several of her classmates in front of the Danish Parliament building, said she believes it is “completely wrong to define us based on our parents” income… because we want to spend our free time going to recreational activities or hanging out with friends instead of spending it on a bus that takes us to and from the high school we are forced to attend.“ She also emphasized that it can create resentment among young people if they are forced to attend a particular high school because their parents belong to a low-income group, adding: ”Then we can stand and look at each other and say: ‘Now we know which group you belong to (i.e., you’re low-income)’”.

Christel Thran, who started the demonstration against forced placement, said the aim of the protest was to push the Radical Left to withdraw its support for the agreement: “I very much hope that after this demonstration the Radical Left will think. We are pulling the handbrake instead of driving something that – in our view – is really a patchwork solution to a huge societal problem where young people have to go out and be young and be the architects of integration in schools they did not choose themselves.” She added: “There are no studies that show that children can be forcibly integrated and that as a 15-year-old you already have your network, so you can’t send children to another school expecting them to be welcomed with open arms. Even if they come with the stamp that they are there because they are poor, then the conditions are unfair for young people to enter on an equal footing.”.

The distribution rules do not lead to the goals of social democrats.
Back in 2019, Education Minister Pernille Rosenkranz-Theil stated that there should be no more than 30% students from ethnic backgrounds in Danish educational institutions. However, according to Berlingske, the new distribution rules are not resulting in a significant decrease in the number of secondary schools with 30% students from ethnic backgrounds other than Danish. Currently, there are 17 secondary schools with such student bodies, and with the new rules, this number will drop to 15, according to figures from the Ministry of Children and Education, as reported by Berlingske.

(Source: Miscellaneous articles from the TV2 website)