Education Minister Tina Nedergaard (Lib) is to propose a bill that is designed to increase respect for teachers and stop pupils from dropping out of teacher training.

Admission to teacher training will be high marks in upper secondary school examinations.

“We must increase the prestige of teacher training and make sure that it is the best pupils who want to become teachers,” says Nedergaard.

Exactly what grade point average will be placed on teacher training has not yet been determined.

The Social Democrats seem to support the move. “Grade averages should be supplemented by entrance examinations or interviews as teachers have to know a lot more than just subjects,” says SocDem Education Spokeswoman Christine Antorini.

Critics of the minister’s proposal, however suggest that the national schooling system will miss out on good teachers if too much emphasis is laid on subject knowledge.

“We agree that we want the best students and that grade averages play an important role. But if, for example, you say that all applicants must have Grade 7 or above, more people will be frightened off applying than will be tempted to apply,” says Chairman of University Colleges Denmark Principals Laust Joen Laustsen.