What is the earliest age children should be allowed to leave school?

In years gone by it wasn’t uncommon for children to start their working life at 14 but since the '70s it has been set at 16 and periodically politicians suggest they want it increased further to 18.

But now Sir Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of education watchdog Ofsted, has said the school leaving age should be cut — taking it back down to 14.

His argument is that this would give less academic children a better chance of learning a trade. He dubbed the idea that children should have to stay on at school until 18 as a "recipe for disaster".

"If a child at 14 has mastered basic literacy and numeracy, I would be very happy for them to leave school and go into a combination of apprenticeship and further education training and a practical, hands-on, craft-based training that takes them through into a job," he said.

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Meanwhile Woodhead supported better literacy among primary school children and said he wanted the proportion of children who reach the literacy target at 11 to increase from its current level of just over 80% to 95%.

Woodhead left his Ofsted role in 2000 and is now chairman of for-profit schools company, Cognita.

The age at which children are legally allowed to leave school has crept up over the decades. In 1900 the Board of Education wanted all school children to stay on until 14 but the majority left at 12 or 13 to start manual work. It wasn’t until after the First World War it was pushed up to 14 and rose again to 15 in 1947.

At every stage there has been strong opposition to the age increases with opponents often claiming the school system couldn’t cope and truancy would rise. It wasn’t until 1972 that compulsory school until the age of 16 was introduced.

Those arguing for longer compulsory schooling usually cite a better-educated workforce as being beneficial for the economy and improving UK’s competitiveness on international markets. Others suggest there is no strong evidential link between raising school age and young people’s job prospects.

So would you let your child leave school at 14?

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