Why raise the UK school leaving age?

Question

I heard on the news today that the UK Government is thinking of raising the school leaving age to eighteen.
What would this achieve,and what other surprises are the Labour Party going to come up with before they lose power.
They seem to be on a self destruct mission.

Answer 1

This seems to be quite an interesting topic to debate about. I'm 16 and so leave in two years (I'm doing A levels), and am one of the very few people who know what they want to do with their life (after many different considerations, but, oh, well). I am slightly for this as not a lot of teenagers know what they want to do, or don't care about what they do. I think that mandatory A levels would be a good idea, as the whole country's population is turning into that "I don't give a sh*t about education, I'm gonna do what I want, and never work" sort of people.
This is, however, probably just a trick to get the British public to think that Labour is doing a good thing for once, but, I'm for it; for the first time in. . .ever.

Answer 2

I have not noticed any popular demand for this policy. Society and the economy are so complicated today that people need all the education and training they can get to have a successful life and career. But this depends upon the availablity of decent jobs. New Labour has more or less completed Thatcher's destruction of British manufacturing industry - about a quarter of jobs in private industry have gone since 1997. Shouldn't Labour create decent job opportunities before they force people into education? Look at the medical and nursing students who can't get jobs once they have qualified. Where are the additional teachers coming from them? And how will they make 16 - 18 year olds go to school or college? The prisons are full already. I am inclined to agree with you about the unemployment statistics. Why else do they let so many students do useless but cheap courses? New Labour should ask what education and training people want to do because it will benefit them. Not plan to wield yet another bureaucratic stick.

Answer 3

I think all ages where children are allowed to enter the adult world should be raised. At the moment you can smoke and get married , even serve in the armed forces and potentially get killed when you are 16, but not drive a car, because you can only get a licence at 17. You cannot leave school before 16. You cannot enter a movie theatre to watch 'X' rated films until your are 18, but you could have been married and had 2 children by this time. You cannot buy drinks in a bar until you are 18, nor vote until you are 18. You cannot apply for a credit card until 18 nor stand for Parliament until you are 21 (I think) So there is a real mishmash of ages when you can and cannot do stuff in the UK. Lets sort it out. lets raise it to 21 for EVERYTHING. Problem solved. No confusion. 21 gives you the key to the door. No more teenage pregnacies, no more kids rolling drunk in the streets, a more educated and literate young adult society. No more chavs and lager louts, ladettes or grubby layabout students and car stealing TWOCers... England will return to the paradise it once was..... ahhhhh.

Answer 4

This is because education is a political tool. In order to get the "highest grades ever" they have dumbed down education so you know longer have to do something as silly as study and then prove after two years that you know and have learnt something. It's all coursework so you can prove you knew something for two months. Taking a final exam in something where that exam is 100% is the only way to check that something is known. To give you and exapmle I once had five exchange students from the UK who went through a coursework system. Despite having done a-levels 15 years before they had they could not remember a single question they answered in their exams, nor indeed their answers. I on the other hand, having come from the old school of having to prove you either know or don't on any question relating to whole course could. Of course there was no internet then and I had to do such silly things like write things down, do my own essays by hand and read books.

Answer 5

Some kids just don't appreciate just how important school is and for the need to get the very best educational qualification possible.

The hope would be that kids actually left school at 18 with a decent education. There are so many kids leaving school at 16 without decent qualifications employers are Unwilling to employ them.

The future prosperity of the country is totally dependant on having a skilled well educated work force who are able to function in ever changing society!

Answer 6

Raising of the school leaving age (ROSLA) has been an issue since 1995 it is not a new issue.
England have the best education system world wide upto 16 years of age.
Post-16 we give teenagers too many options and not all of these teenagers are equiped to make their choices.
Labour are not intending to raise the school leaving age to 18 what they are implementing is to prevent teenagers falling into the NEET category.
NEET is Not in Education, Employment or Training.
Labour pose to make 16-18yr olds either choose education or a training programme. They are leaving out employment as majority of 16yr olds who get their own job leave and spend countless months trying to find another less meaningful job.

Answer 7

I have always thought this would be a great idea. With the whole 'text speak' etc these days, we are raising a generation of illiterate children. GCSE passes are rising but passes in core subjects are on the decline. Its all very well that these youngsters have 10 passes in "media studies" and "art" etc etc etc, but can they actually read and write and spell? A lot of them cannot.

To keep children at school until 18 would be a very good idea. If they had passed their GCSE's they could go on to do A Levels in the final two years. Students who'd failed could re-sit their GCSE's. Therefore, we would then have young adults looking for work, most of whom would have a decent standard of education.

Also, a lot of 16 year olds (i was one of them) just want to escape school and get earning, no matter what the job. I feel by 18, having worked part time whilst completing their education, they would have a much better idea of what career they would like to be involved in in the future.

Can you explain why you think all this is such a terrible idea?

Answer 8

It should be kept exactly how it is, if it aint broke don't fix it - a phrase I don't think the lab party ave heard of! Anyway its almost compulsory to leave up to 18 at the moment anyway with most schools, i bet, urging you to continue. I don't EVER remember being presented or told I had a choice to leave at 16.

But remember school really isn't for some people at all and there are kids that do know what they want to do in life. Besides giving kids more education isn't necessarily a cure for those who don't know what they want to do, it merely costs them more money and puts even more stuff in their head that they probably don't need to know.

I say change the education schools give, make them practical and REVELANT to real life. EG apprenticships and training etc.

Answer 9

What exactly is the problem with educating people?? Does anyone think this is worse than asking Muslim women to remove their veils because it muffles their voice? Or invading Iraq just because George flaming Bush says so???? What about tax rises and inflation?

If the youth of Britian got themselves an education instead of roaming the streets at 16 because they can't get a job, we'd all be better off. Get a grip for goodness sake, not everything the government do is for the good of politicians.

Answer 10

It is to make the unemployment figures look more reassuring.
Let us hope they self destruct before they implement it.

They obviously have completely ignored the figures concerning the number of pupils truanting from school which were published recently. As a seasoned teacher I have seen so many students rearing to leave school and who would do so much better in apprenticeships and practical training...They want real life, earning money, not sitting on a school chair forced to study subjects for which they have no inclination or aptitude. Sadly education is not synonymous with learning and you can spend millions on the former without achieving the latter.You can take a horse to water but you can't force it to drink.

As final thought why, when it comes to power, is the opposition rarely reversing the decisions taken by its predecessors?
We have seen one government after the other making and persevering with policies that have been a disaster in educational terms and wheels unnecessarily reinvented and installed with knobs on, making things worse, not better, and wasting a great deal of time which could have been put to better use.