FO-Aarhus - Free Education Association- is one of
the Danish education associations. These associations were
initiated by the four oldest Danish political parties respectively.
Today party affiliation may be seen only in board membership.
"Frit Oplysningsforbund" was founded in 1952 by members of Det
Radikale Venstre - The Social Liberal Party - with the object of
broadening public enlightenment in general and working for public
acceptance of the ideals of the UN.
Night School - Evening Classes
The "traditional" leisure time education for adults still
take an important role in the activities of
FO-Aarhus
In August every year FO-Aarhus publishes a catalogue offering
courses on a wide range of subjects such as foreign languages,
history, Danish and foreign literature, psychology, astrology,
handiwork, cooking, music, singing, and many more.
Most classes still take place after working hours but week-end
courses and daytime teaching are in great demand as well.
Classes are placed all over the greater Århus area mostly in
public school rooms. In general students don't have to travel far
to attend their classes.
Normally it takes 14 participants to start a class. This also
means that any group of 14 people can contact FO-Aarhus and have a
class or course opened to them on the required subject as long as
this subject is an acknowledged popular enlightenment subject.
All the tuition offered by the educational associations is
non-formal which means that there are no exams. This is in
accordance with the public enlightenment concept based on the
ideals of the particular Danish Popular High Schools as laid down
by the founder of public enligtenment N.F.S. Grundtvig, priest,
historian, philosopher ....
- to create self confidence and possibilities of knowledge,
capability, and action.
Education associations
Danish education associations are NGOs operating under
the Public Enlightenment Act of 1991. They are private
organisations partly funded by local authorities.
In the beginning it was the object of the education associations
to offer improvement of basic skills in Danish, courses in foreign
languages, mathematics, history, handiwork, and music.
But today, understanding our body and mind, understanding our
society and its laws, understanding our computer and its software,
understanding those who are different from ourselves, are subjects
of increasing importance.
And joint ventures with public services to offer unemployed
people opportunities to return to the labour market have become
numerous.
Projects
Projects of this kind have become a speciality with FO-Aarhus.
Many of them aim at offering education to immigrants thus paving
their way to integration into the Danish association.
The Danish education associations in general have become
important partners in combatting unemployment and in the
integration of foreigners.
Examples of initiatives and projects initiated by
FO-Aarhus.
Wemens lives (Dayschool For Women)
Clean-team
Entrance 2 - for street kids
Jobbreaker
New Chance
Some statistics
(approx. numbers per year)
- 45000 lessons
- 5000 participants
- 250 teachers
- 40 subjects
FO-Aarhus co-operates with various other schools for adult
education.
FO-Aarhus has initiated a number of major projects which
eventually have taken on a life of their own.
FO-Aarhus is in joint ventures with a number of public
services.
FO-Aarhus (Free Education Association)
Frederiksgade 78 C
DK-8000 Aarhus C
DENMARK
Tel +45 87 46 45 00
Fax +45 86 20 28 78