20 April 2007
Education Secretary Alan Johnson has defended controversial proposals to force young people to stay in education until the age of 18.
Appearing in front of the Commons' education and skills select committee on April 18, Johnson said he was 'not going to chain children to the desk doing quadratic equations', and that attendance orders would be issued only as a measure of last resort.
A green paper, published last month, drew criticism that criminalising young people who refused to participate in post-16 education and training would be counter-productive.
But Johnson said it was increasingly important for people to stay on in education as the number of jobs available for the unskilled dwindled. He added that there was a need for a 'genuine debate' about the best tactics that could be employed to engage young people who felt disaffected with education.
'There has to be a much better advice and guidance system in schools. One that picks them up at 14 and tracks them through. If a child drops out of the system you do everything you can to find out what has happened and lure them back in,' he said.
Johnson was also called on to defend the retention of the A-level following Sir Mike Tomlinson's recommendation that the qualification should be abandoned in favour of a single diploma.
Johnson told MPs the A-level had been the 'gold standard' qualification since 1941 and it was not right to remove the option of taking A-levels from young people just to reduce complexity.
But he agreed that it was important to ensure vocational study was regarded as on a par with academic study.
PFapr2007
