The Tory party's annual conference in underway in Manchester UK.
What you make off their plans depends on many things such as your political leanings, personal circumstances and much more. They will never please every citizen but hopefully they will formulate ideas and plans designed to help the country economically and maintain a peaceful society. On the agenda as always will be the government's education plans. It seems however that some hold a totally different view on education.
The former head of Ofsted, Chris Woodhead has stated that far from the school leaving age increasing to 18, as planned, it should be reduced to 14. Much as there is some sense in this overall it is bonkers.
What you make off their plans depends on many things such as your political leanings, personal circumstances and much more. They will never please every citizen but hopefully they will formulate ideas and plans designed to help the country economically and maintain a peaceful society. On the agenda as always will be the government's education plans. It seems however that some hold a totally different view on education.
The former head of Ofsted, Chris Woodhead has stated that far from the school leaving age increasing to 18, as planned, it should be reduced to 14. Much as there is some sense in this overall it is bonkers.
The man involved, Chris Woodhead, has said that, "If a child at 14 has mastered basic literacy and numeracy, I would be very happy for that child to leave school and to go into a combination of apprenticeship and further education training and a practical, hands-on, craft-based training that takes them through into a job."
Sounds perfect, doesn't it.
However it will only be children from poorer backgrounds as others will fare better at school. There are few if any proper apprenticeships available in the UK so the dole queue seem to beckon. Even when this writer was a child in 50s UK the school leaving age was 15. 14 would take a backward step a huge distance. Of course then many of these young men became cannon fodder.
There have always been some kids unwilling or unable to learn but there have also been many that with the right sort of encouragement eventually blossom academically. Woodhead also said that t was a" "recipe for disaster" to make young people study English and maths up to the age of 18, and said it was a mistake to make vocational education "quasi-academic"".
Some of this makes good sense but the government will have to think long and hard about the school leaving age. Simply abandoning kids aged 14 to an uncertain future should not be an option. If the last 4 years of their education was spent in a vocational role it could work.
An ill thought and hastily developed plan could see a generation on the scrap heap with all the associated problems that would bring. Mr Woodhead has said that leaving school at 14 could be the best option for children less academically inclined but maybe it will just mean that less bright children are ignored by their teachers.
Sounds perfect, doesn't it.
However it will only be children from poorer backgrounds as others will fare better at school. There are few if any proper apprenticeships available in the UK so the dole queue seem to beckon. Even when this writer was a child in 50s UK the school leaving age was 15. 14 would take a backward step a huge distance. Of course then many of these young men became cannon fodder.
There have always been some kids unwilling or unable to learn but there have also been many that with the right sort of encouragement eventually blossom academically. Woodhead also said that t was a" "recipe for disaster" to make young people study English and maths up to the age of 18, and said it was a mistake to make vocational education "quasi-academic"".
Some of this makes good sense but the government will have to think long and hard about the school leaving age. Simply abandoning kids aged 14 to an uncertain future should not be an option. If the last 4 years of their education was spent in a vocational role it could work.
An ill thought and hastily developed plan could see a generation on the scrap heap with all the associated problems that would bring. Mr Woodhead has said that leaving school at 14 could be the best option for children less academically inclined but maybe it will just mean that less bright children are ignored by their teachers.
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