school leaving age

Great news that the school leaving age is to be raised to 18. It should provide the extra impetus for a much larger number of young people to get qualifications and skills, including vital life skills, they would not otherwise have gained.

I left school at 17 to work as a hospital porter. It was only later that I went to university, and I feel I got more benefit from doing things that way. I had more experience of life when I eventually pitched up at university at 21, and in the intervening years I had saved enough to be able to manage my finances over three years of study without getting into debt.

My dad left school at the age of 15 in 1955 to work as a labourer, later qualifying as a plumber. His dad left school at the age of 12 in 1917 and went to work digging gravel, later becoming (among other things) a painter and decorator.

It's amazing how opportunities for young people from working class families have advanced over the past century, due in no small part to successive Labour governments, including this one.

I can only speculate what my dad and granddad might have done with their lives if they had been encouraged to learn as young people are today. As a school governor, it's a privilege these days to see youngsters excelling.