Just
how stupid you had to be to want to raise the school leaving age to 18, I really
cannot imagine. It would be naive in the extreme to believe that this was
implemented for sound educational reasons.There were already many tens of thousands of disaffected youths of 14, 15 & 16 desperate to leave an education which was not designed for them but was merely created to engineer the destruction of grammar schools. In the 60s the left and their acolytes voiced the slogan "A grammar school education for all!"
Folly to think that such an education would suit all youngsters, many of whom have already peaked well before 14. You were offering the kind of liberal education for which a particular brain pattern and level of intelligence were both required.
The comprehensives were born out of a false premise and their primary intention was always to combat 'social elitism' rather than to improve education. Education at its best should always be attempting to give the most appropriate learning base. Fail on this - fail on everything.
A number of studies - not least from the LSE - have shown that social mobility has actually deteriorated in the comprehensive system.
Raising the leaving age to 18 compulsorily was the final admission that the system had failed completely.
[Would you fancy teaching a class of disaffected 17 & 18 year old youths in a school or college of F.E.? No! Me neither. 14 year olds are quite bad enough.]
Can't recruit enough teachers now? Well, see how hard it will be to recruit new staff and keep existing ones when this all kicks in fully.
