School leaving age may rise to 18

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) Young people may have to remain in full-time education or vocational training until they are 18 under proposals being considered by the government, officials said.

Education Secretary Alan Johnson will publish a consultation document or Green paper later this year looking at the practicalities of such a move, his spokesman said yesterday.

The government wants to increase the number of 16-18 year olds in full time training or education from the current level of 75 per cent.

Making attendance compulsory to achieve this goal is one option under consideration, the spokesman said.

''We want every 16-18 year old to take advantage of the range of education and training opportunities available to them,'' he said.

The Times newspaper reported that Johnson wanted the mandatory age for leaving education or training to rise from 16 to 18 by 2013.

''It should be as unacceptable to see a 16-year-old working, with no training, no education, as it is now to see a 14-year-old,'' Johnson told the Times.

''A 14-year-old at work was common until the Butler changes (after end of World War Two), but now you would find it repellent.

''We should find it equally repellent that a youngster of 16 is not getting any training.'' The proposal was welcomed by the National Union of Teachers, who said raising the school leaving age to 18 was ''inevitable''.

''Young people remaining in education and high quality training will be good for our country and our economy,'' said NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott.

But he warned the goal could not be realised ''on the cheap''.

''The last move to raise the school leaving age from 15 to 16 in 1972 was not accompanied by sufficient preparation and additional resources,'' he said.

John Dunford, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the government first had to find the correct structure for the 16-18 curriculum.

''At the moment we have a rather confusing range of qualifications in the vocational area,'' he told BBC television.

The Times said the move would affect around 330,000 teenagers.

It said the plan was prompted by concern at rising teenage unemployment and an expected decline in the number of unskilled jobs in Britain.

REUTERS SY VC0958