Education till 18

As far as I know, the age that you can drop out of school here in the USA has already long been the age of 18. I feel that this is a fair and responsible law, to be honest with you. And this is coming from someone (myself) who was so shy in school that I ended up leaving for a time and was placed in different schooling to help me with my shyness. I was sort of a drop out for awhile but not because I did not wish to learn. Anyway, I think that the age 18 is fair. That is when we are considered an adult, so we shoudl have to go to school until that age.

Frankly, I don't understand why its not just mandatory to finish high school. That would make more sense to me. It should at least be 18. School is important, and while kids don't want to believe that at that age, they need to stay in.

This is just further proof that the UK government is in such as mess they just don't know what to do so they're coming up with ideas that just don't work for people who live in the real world.

I cannot comment on the policy in the UK, but I agree the points you mention would most likely be valid ones. Here in Australia, the move isn't so much to force them to stay in education, but it has that effect. Students who leave school before completing high school (usually about 17 yrs old) do not receive social security payments. They are free to leave earlier if they work or do not claim benefits. High schools have introduced new schemes for the less academically minded, whereby they enrol in subjects more designed to help with everyday life. Other practical courses can also be undertaken, through the school, at the TAFE (technical education) college. Many young people undertake such things as introductory hairdressing, motor mechanics, eletrician etc which could lead to an apprenticeship with those trades. I think the system we have here is a pretty good one, encouraging the young people to keep studying while waiting for work.

I was a caseworker in Philadelphia between 1975 and 1985 and we had a pretty stupid system here too. Kids were carried on the school's books until the age of 17 as long as they were registered. The schools were legally unable to drop them from their books. Since their mother's could collect welfare for them only if registered, I saw a lot of those books. Many kids were in attendence two days each year - the first day (registration day) of each semester. That way mom got her welfare money and the kids were free to roam the streets which is what they did unless they were in juvenile hall awaiting trial. Don't know if that's still the system or not here but I think there has to be a better way to utilize youthful energy than forced education which usually winds up being just forced enrollment.

I agree it should be left as it is at 16. It speaks volumes that a government that has dumbed down education so much now has to try to redress the balance - it can't educate the kids properly in the time they're at school so they're making them stay on another two years to teach them the stuff they should have learned by the time they were 16. That'll get the conspiracy theorists babbling...

I live in the states and it laws is to 18. I see it as good because you will be more educated and there is nothing wrong with going to school for two years. our government aknowledge 18 then you become and adult.

I think there is a lot of emphasis on the parents here that the parents may not be supporting their children as much in so much as their futhering their education. I stayed on to do A levels (did quite well as well but I am not going to brag) and I am now at university doing a law degree, however I think if my parents had not shown me the advantages of furthering my education in some capacity, even if it was in the form of an apprenticeship i would not have been as enthusiastic or influenced to stay in further education and consequently proceed to higher education. I found that realistically most of my peer group and probably myself included were really not informed enough at the age of 16 to make those sorts of choices. I don't think a national curriculum style education should be mandatory, but maybe include apprenticeships or on the job training type education, as not all education is textbook, and according to the government there is a shortage in the vocational fields..

frankly I think school should be mandatory...

This will only work if they make education more inspiring and not just teaching to the test. My daughter finished school last Sept and then went to college. She choose 3 sujects for A level and after 2 months was bored out of her skull. She said it was nothing like she thought it was going to be. She has been looking for a job and it is impossible. Everywhere she goes they want experience. Nearly all her friends are so unmotivated to get a job as they have left school with no skills to send them into the workforce. This government needs to take responsibility and recognise the National Curriculum is failing so many students. They become disruptive because they are usually bored if they are not academic. No one learns a trade in this country anymore. Look at a few years ago, we didn't have enough plumbers. Cheap foreign workers are keeping wages down and most young people will not work for the wages paid nowadays. I can see this being a complete disaster if they do not look at this rationally. I work in education and the system stinks. The segregation of schools caused by middle class parents able to select what school their child can go to has caused alot of schools to fail because there isn't the mixture there was when I was at school. I've seen it happen for my self and it really pisses me off. Alot of children are leaving school without basic levels in reading and writing. What difference is upping the age to 18 going to do. Alot of kids will just bunk off. Sorry to have gone on but anything to do with education in this country at the moment makes my blood boil. A good discussion +

What heck is going on here??!!! That would be an added expense, I guess. Plus, schooling is not always an interest among teens. I think that one problem deep within this issue is not the rising rate of unemployment but the increasing automation of jobs in mostly big multi-national or even local companies. What used to be a job done by a hundred people can now be done by a single chiphead--the computer. For me, that would be unfair...

i also dont think that is a good move by the government, i am staying on umtil 18 but i couldnt bare to be with all of the yobs that dont care about education, it will just make the schooling system worse by keeping them in it