Social tinkering spells disaster for our young

Patrick Ainley and Martin Allen    
Times Higher Education Supplement   20/4/2007

 
Raising the school-leaving age to 18 could do more than any other measure to widen participation in higher education. But not in the heavy-handed and incriminating way that the Government proposes.
 
Staying at school or going to college is now the norm for most 16-year-olds. But widening participation [...]

Will staying on to 18 open up possibilities, or close them?

Patrick Ainley     
The Guardian    13/03/2007
 

Education make you fick, innit?” was how one further education student explained why he was not “aiming higher” for university. So it’s perhaps not surprising that many young people oppose raising the school-leaving age to 18. They echo the working-class children and families who saw the previous raising of the school-leaving age [...]