The compulsion of unwilling English teenagers to stay on at school until they are 17 not only changes the whole character of the Lower Sixth (which is suddenly now compulsory education, with all that that entails), but seems dependent on worry about turning out “low-skilled” school-leavers.
Now, I yield to none in my belief both in academic education (by no means only early in life) and in the need for high-skilled, high-wage, high-status jobs.
But as long as there are old people (and we are going to have even more of them than we have now, unequivocally a good thing), then there will be a need for care workers. And as long as there is dirt, then there will be a need for cleaners. We can hardly pack off our elderly to nursing homes in India, or send our floors to China to be mopped.
Care workers, cleaners and many others fulfil useful and necessary functions, in marked contrast to many of those who look down on them. The challenge is to guarantee that they have the decent standard of living that they deserve, since we could not possibly do without them.
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Where does the law state that teenagers must "stay on in school until they are 17?" I had read it was "stay in education", which of course is an entirely different thing (could include a college, or work with a training place like an apprenticeship). But maybe I'm wrong?
ReplyDeleteThat still changes the whole dynamic - they *have* to be there.
ReplyDeleteAnd, for that matter, have to accommodated. The days when any over-stroppy fifth year past his or her sixteenth birthday could just be told to sling his or her hook without further ado are over.
Of course most of them are going to be in school. Any expectation to the contrary is wildly unrealistic.
"And, for that matter, have to accommodated. The days when any over-stroppy fifth year past his or her sixteenth birthday could just be told to sling his or her hook without further ado are over."
ReplyDeleteThat just isn't true. As with now, schools can decline to take students for VIth form.
That wasn't what I said.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, they can't. Not any more. An individual school can, but the whole sytem no longer can. Welcome to sink Sixth Forms.