Why do politicians come up with such crackpot ideas at times? Now is a case in point. The Labour party proposes that by 2013 the minimum age at which kids may leave secondary school should be increased from 16 years of age to 18. That means that every schoolchild will be forced to continue their education until they are 18.To say the least this proposal gives me pause for thought. Once again politicians seems to think that all 16-18 year olds are exactly alike, with the same academic abilities and ambitions to enter the university treadmill and come out the other end with a degree. They seem to forget that one of the wonders of humanity is how we are all different, with different skills and abilities, but together we form a community which benefits us all.

This proposal will do very little for those youngsters of an academic bent, who have the skills and motivation to thrive in a classroom, and who already leave school at 18 years of age with already developed ambition and motivation to go on to university. to study for a degree and to seek a future, perhaps in the professions.. But a huge proportion of kids in secondary school either not like that. They do not, and will not, thrive in an academic atmosphere. However on leaving school and entering a more adult environment where they will develop their own maturity as well as learning vocational skills and abilities that will be of benefit both to themselves and future employers. I know. I was one of them.

Even now I remember my schooldays with a haze of horror. I then did not have the maturity to see why I was at school and what was the benefit of education. All I wanted was to leave the school I hated as soon as I could, to get away from an atmosphere that at the time was totally antipathetic to me. I had no idea what I would do when I left school, the thought of having to support myself and to earn a living never even entered my mind. I just knew I wanted to get out. I was lucky. My father (who left school at 14 thinking exactly as I had done but as an adult took up further education himself and subsequently became a senior lecturer in an FE college) understood my point of view and so I left school at 16, once I had had my GCE “O” levels, then he pushed me into a job in the local County Council (he actually was in the room when I was interviewed for my first ever job). I started work there and over the next couple of years developed the maturity to see that I had the opportunity of a career, which I took up, moving to the civil service and ultimately into the profession that was right for me. But it took years and years of learning my own lessons in life to see what path I should take. I was just not the type to learn that during my schooldays.

Many, many school kids are the same and making them stay in a schoolroom for two more years after they are 16 will just be a complete waste of their time and will be a waste, ultimately, to the community and the country as a whole. They are likely just to feel demotivated and will not achieve anything valuable during the extra two years at school. They would be much better suited having to find a job or perhaps an apprenticeship. Supporting themselves would help them to discover their own maturity and the life that is right for them. Perhaps, then, there should not be unemployment benefit for kids, making them find a job to support themselves at 16 instead. They will soon grow up much more quickly and will become a benfit to us all.