school leaving age up to 18!

[Steve Walker]

I have to say that the best thing about leaving school for sixth form college at 16 was that everyone at college was there through their own choice. This gave the teachers the option of saying "if you don't like it, p1ss off", which did more for getting people to work than any amount of authority figure posturing had done at high school.

 

I think this is a mistake. There are plenty of jobs which don't require any education beyond the literacy and numeracy that the system should be ensuring that all 16 year olds have. Why does a labourer need another two years of school when he'd rather be out earning a living?

 

The money this will cost would be better spent on expanding adult education services so that people who do leave school at 16 will be better able to take education when they see that it will benefit them.

[chesters1]

seeing that they have completed f-upped the exams by letting any fool pass and making them irrelevant they have now (after its been in the media ofcourse) stumbled across the fact that a high number of these test marvels they are churning out cant count nevermind read and write .

they have ofcourse realised that once everyone gets a pass the exams are no good in sorting out the brains from mediocre masses and companies wont touch exam results with a barge pole.

 

their solution : get them staying in school a bit longer so they can sign the dole questionaire as "X's" are too common nowadays.

a bit pointless though theres plenty of foreigners who also cant read or write their name in english but are cheaper to employ anyway

 

their thought process is (say with horror in voice)

"theres people leaving school at 16 with no training" well bugger that the majority of those that left school when we had an empire left at 14 with no training but managed to get work ,just what is "training" and why is it different to common education ?

is "Training" a group study where everyone sits around discussing life,politics and religeon and "integrating" everyone into purely PC thought processes or simply being able to read!! the latter should be part of early schooling not tacked onto the end!

 

you can force people to stay in education 'till their 30 but only those who want to learn will ,those that do not will leave uneducated just the same but older.

 

the answer is to make it worth companies time to restore the fading the apprentiship schemes ,those that are interested in a particular occupation get support learning that occupation ,those that cant be bothered get chucked in the army and will hopefully after a bit of beasting and front line service come around to the fact that employement is better than deployment!

 

the scholars go to further education where they wish to be ,the less "brainy" but just as abled in other ways get trained in something they enjoy (no need for quantum theory for a mechanic) and the waste of skins get the square bashing that they deserve and where arseing around spoiling it for others isnt tolerated

 

its natures way ,the brainy get brainier ,the abled get more abled and the bully and thug gets a bullet in the brain or changes his ways and becomes one of the other two

Edited January 13, 2007 by chesters1

[Steve Walker]

Oh, I see how they are planning to enforce it:

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2543473,00.html

 

The Government is considering enforcing the change by withdrawing driving licences from teenagers who do not comply. Officials are looking at the example of the Canadian province of Ontario, which found that driving bans were an effective way to ensure compliance. However, British teenagers can start driving at 17 rather than 16, and are less dependent on cars than their Canadian peers.

 

This is all very authoritarian, and amounts to a huge removal of civil rights from 16 and 17 year olds.

[chesters1]

it could just be a bit of spiel put out to the papers to hide something else ,think of the hundreds of "initiatives" these pricks dream up ,spend millions consulting about then dropped and forgotten.

what about the criminal proceeds recovery dooda ,millions spent setting it up ,recovered bugger all compared to its running costs then dropped ,not to mention the CSA spent millions making "good" absent parents lives a misery ,recovered nothing from the bad guys now dropped and being called something else

[Peggy Burke]

Hi all,

 

I can not for the life of me understand why this has been introduced.

 

I'm with Medway Green and as a teacher, albeit Primary School, I'd say the following.

 

I agree children need to leave school with skills that will set them up for life. This does not however have to be A Levels or a University degree. For many children this is not the right route and what is needed is good vocational training. This does not need to be in a school environment but rather in the workplace and with day release to college. That way pupils are receiving a wage and also the training that they need for a career.

 

The seconday schools are already beset with so many discipline problems that forcing children to stay on beyond 16 to attend lessons on subjects that don't interest them. and they're not academically able to assimilate, is to my mind madness.

 

Sadly many of the 'troublemakers' come from homes where education is not valued and no support is given to the schools when they attempt to deal with behaviour problems. This is very evident even in the Primary sector and it just gets worse as the children get older.

 

Once again this proposal is all down to politics and has nothing to do with what's best for our youngsters.

[Andy_1984]

No. A kid that leaves school at 16 with no qualifications is not going to go far in this world. In France hardly anyone leaves school at 16, any kid that does better have a good job lined up because he ain't gonna get much in the way of benefits until he is at least 18.

 

 

im a prime example of this, no job lined up and no benefits for 2 years. i was told i can leave school when i was 16 because i was a right hell raiser, i regret it all now that im much wiser but i left before any important exams to set me up for life. and you guessed it, i never got work untill i was 20 years old, 2 freakin years ago !

 

the schools try as hard as they can i know this because they always say things like

Andrew they are laughing at you not with you, True

 

Andrew your going to look back one day and regret all that you have put us through, True

 

Andrew school is the most important thing in your life, True

 

Andrew your gonna be a bum, True

 

andrew your not going anywhere in life you can leave if you want, True.. that was the last day i ever went back to school.

 

i got a lucky break in life much more people dont get a second chance and if the leaving age was 18 they will get wiser and finaly realize that school definetly is the most important thing in your life ever, lets face it many of you probably heard the things i listed above, i did and all of them at the time i counted as a load of useless nonsense.

[Sportsman]

Well said Andy

Like you I was a waste of space at school and didn't find out what I wanted to do until after I left. I was lucky.

Times are changing now. When I left school in1964 you could walk into almost any factory (we had them then) and ask for a job, and they would find something that suited you. Now there are very many fewer jobs, particularly for unskilled or unqualified young people, and there are more and more qualified people coming from other countries to fill them. Thats a fact of life and unless we leave the EEC likely to remain so.

We need a workforce with a different set of skills these days, not just a bunch of GCSEs or whatever they are called this week.

I would like to see the emphasis, during those last two years, on training for life in the workplace

Peggy, I think they mentioned school or an apprenticeship / vocational training, otherwise I agree with you.

[Steve Walker]

Well said Andy Like you I was a waste of space at school and didn't find out what I wanted to do until after I left.

 

Would it not be best to put the resources into making the education available to people once they figure out that they need it rather than cramming it down their throats while they don't want it?

[corydoras]

Would it not be best to put the resources into making the education available to people once they figure out that they need it rather than cramming it down their throats while they don't want it?

I'm not sure. Go and look at the Polish education system and be afraid.

[Guest Rabbit]

So you just let them out to do what they like, with no future? I'm sorry I really don't understand the mentality of some people in this country any more. So they leave school at 16 with no qualifications at all, because they can't be friggin bothered. Then what?

You get your bins emptied