another ROSLA disaster?

I've never been so relieved I've left teaching..... reading the recent reports about raising the school leaving age to 18 took me right back to the 70's, when schools all over the place had to build temporary huts to cope with the increased numbers of pupils when the age was raised to 16 - and the disciplinary effects are still being felt from that.

It seems crazy to me, to keep young people of that age in schol - they will be so resentful, rebellious, and infinitely worse than the current 16 year olds who can't wait to leave..... I mean - you can get married at 16 - and they're saying you have to stay at school??

There will always be the good kids, and the studious ones, who will want to stay on as they've always done - but I can't see that making everyone stay on that long will do anything other than cause chaos, lots more teachers leaving the proession, and thousands of "disenchanted teenagers" as they're known in the trade.....

 

I agree. Why can we not recognise that people become young adults at puberty? Why can we not recognise that academic learning does not suit everyone? Secondary schooling has always favoured the few who go on to A levels and fails the majority that don't.

Young people become rebellious and disaffected because they are treated as reluctant learners and failures. How much better it would be to release non academic youngsters from schools into proper apprenticeships. Surely a 15 year old able to qualify at 18 or so as a bricklayer, mechanic, plumber, electrician would see the rewards ahead and work willingly. And isn't that the only way to work? At the same time, we are crying out for plumbers and all manner of skilled workers.

Yet we continue to try to ram formal education down unwilling throats. When it doesn't work - what do we do? We punish truancy with expulsion and serve them with ASBOs. We create another lost generation of young adults who can work only for poor wages or take to crime.

 

100% with you there, HB. I reckon if we could say to teenagers that they have the right to, say, 4 further years of education, but that they can go out and get jobs now, and come back when they're ready for it, it would save all this hassle.

I meet plenty of people who tell me they regret not taking the opportunity to learn when they were at school, and they go and do night classes - it all goes to confirm my belief that education is wasted on the vast majority of 13-16 year olds......

There was a lot to be said for technical schools, the only problem being that the criteria for getting in to them made them seem inferior. If that stigma wasn't there, it would work well - and we'd have the plumbers, electricians, and other necessary and respected tradespeople that we need.

 

I left school at 16 and educated myself in a hit and miss sort of way through our wonderful public libraries. Couldn't have stayed at school till I was 18!!

 

I assume that the government are considering this as a way of keeping anti-social yobbos off the streets, but it won't do that. They'll just be causing an absolute nightmare for the entire community.

You could well be in the position as a teacher, of having several married couples in your class! (I know - most people don't bther to get married - but just imagine how ridiculous it would be!!!)

 

Imagine the disruption they will cause in the classroom where others who want to stay on are trying to get on with their work!(noise from the creche). They that make these stupid rules should be made to try and teach them!
My son still wants to teach secondary, good for him, someone will have to and it will be a thankless task.

 

I feel really sorry for people going into the profession these days. Good on your son for going in - and with his eyes open, I presume. My sons won't be doing it, that's for sure.

They say it will be introduced for those going into secondary school in the next year or so, I understand, so that those pupils will go into secondary, knowing they'll be there until they're 18. I wonder how many teachers are on the point of leaving now?

 

Its a very good way of keeping the unemployment figures down though.
I'm just wondering how much this is going to cost ME.

 

I agree with everyone, many children just don't see the point of school and bunk off whenever they can. I have no solution, after all not every one who is disatisfied with school will want to be a plumber, I was in my 30s before I found out what I wanted to do with my life careerwise. Unfortunately no matter how much you want the children's learning to be fun, stimulating and beneficial you have the government telling you what you have to teach and how then you have to teach to pass the next exam. SATs time is horrendous, the pressure on the children is aweful even if you try and keep it as informal as possible, and I teach infants!

 

Free school transport for those eligible will cost millions on a larger prolonged scale!

 

I was made to leave school at 15, with no qualifications. My headmaster, teachers and I all wanted me to go on to uni but it was not to be, loved school and learning. Wanted to do art and archeaology, now I`m a horticulturist digging up other people`s gardens anyway. David.

 

I think that says it all David,
everyone should have the choice, one way or another, no one should be forced to stay at school or not.

 

At present fewer and fewer are leaving at 16. The days when kids could leave at 16 and walk into a job are gone. When we were at school such kids could get jobs in factories. Manufacturing has declined, the jobs have gone abroad to the developing countries where labour is cheaper and even there fewer people make the things because there is more automation. Its the way the world is now. Globalisation means that manufacturing is shifting from countries like our own to the developing world. Jobs that are increasing are in the service sector.
What worries me is that these disenchanted kids who won't learn will end up unemployable and we will end up with an underclass. You need qulifications for virtually everything nowadays. Somebody mentioned car mechanic - we dont need as,many now cause cars are more reliable , but are more complex. The mechanics now use complex diagnostics tools, using computers.
There will be a huge teacher shortage soon. a large proportion of teachers are the baby boomers. They are just starting to hit 60 - the retirement age. The government have said that the numbers entering teacher training have gone up. What they don't mention is that 75% of those don't last 3 years.

 

Hmmm are we missing a government agenda here. We got an election on the horizon - unemployment is rising. Keep young adults in education (not necassarily schools) and the figures slow and decline.

Kinda like the need for affordable housing particularly for London works. Let the developers concrete over the south east - with a supposed target of 30% of all development affordable - and the government can say we increased affordable housing. But as they can't enforce either the 30% target (they're only achiving 18%) nor enforce the mandatory building standards (30% of new homes do not meet them) - and refuse to make mandatory the code for sustainable development. Communites in the southern counties are going to pay for this for decades to come.

I will now get off my soap box, with apologies to all. I am just ******* off (my stars) with this government riding rough shod over people and failing to show any long term sense.