Farewell to sensible governance

On Friday 12^th January, the Department for Education and Skills confirmed plans to raise the school leaving age to 18, according to the BBC news website.

Already, the Government has attempted such desperate measures as the incredulous waste of tax-payers’ money, the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA), but this plan, if implemented, could have seriously damaging repercussions throughout the Country, including, but not limited to, defence and tradesmanship.

The fact that in this modern age we are still producing 11 year-olds (and indeed 16 year-olds) who cannot read or write is evidential failure on the part of the Government, obsessed with adding a diverse range of subjects at a young age.

This is after their last desperate attempt to get pupils to continue in education post-16, the badly-planned Educational Maintenance Allowance, which will presumably be scrapped if education is compulsory. Not bad in my opinion, seeing as it is an immense waste of money not devoid of its own failures.

By the time a child reaches the age 11, they should be able to read, write and do simple maths. Only then should they be taught the more complex subjects. Or vocationally.

The introduction of vocational GCSEs falsified the data in League Tables, as did focusing on such subjects as Business Studies rather than the important subjects such as English and Maths. The way in which League Tables started to include English and Maths outlined the growing problem we face. It was also another example of the Government adopting a Conservative policy as they fast run out of ideas.

Focus league tables on core subjects

Source: Education: The State of State Schools, Conservative Party Policy Review Mid-Term Report

16,300 members of our Armed Forces are aged between 16 and 18. This would mean that 7.4% of our nation’s defence would be scrapped due to compulsory education, on top of the raising of recruitment age to the Army because of problems with attracting people to join in the first place.

Compulsory education after 16 will no doubt move to address the problems with the reading/writing situation the Country is currently facing, but more needs to be done BEFORE, so that the selective post-16 procedure we have had since 1972 can continue uninterrupted, where the disruptive students are mostly unable to continue on in the more academic subjects, and so will either take up a vocational subject at a college, and the students who wish to learn can do so for as long as they wish.