Skipper

Occasionally I find I have to rub my eyes in disbelief at some of the government's actions. As a teacher I probably experience this more than most in other professions but such an occasion happened to be this morning when I read that the government is seeking to enforce its raised school leaving age to 18 with fines and Asbo attendance orders. What on earth can Alan Johnson, a rare but authentically working class politician, have been thinking of? The arguments against this absurd policy spring so readily to mind, it defies belief that Johnson and his advisers were not swayed by them:

i) Already a proportion- many of them living in the sink council estates- of those required to stay in school until 16 are hopelessly disengaged from the system and would be better off working than either skipping classes or attending but disrupting them out of boredom and the perversity it breeds. It only needs a few really disenchanted kids to make teaching impossible or at least excessively stressful for teachers.

ii) Adding to their number with even more alienated youngsters will only make matters much worse, as any teacher with experience of this age group will vouchsafe.

iii) Fining truants or slapping down Asbos will merely criminalize the people the measure is designed to assist and drive them further onto and beyond the bounds of society.

The alternative is to reinvent post 16 education to make it genuinely beneficial and attractive in laying the foundations of adult careers. A tough requirement I know but rather than this policy of compulsion I think it better to leave the SLA where it is. Though with youngsters not being affected until 2015 there is still time to row back from this potentially disastrous course. Lets hope the government of the day- and I note the Tories are against compulsion- will see sense in time.