SCHOOL AGE TO BE RAISED
Students must stay in class until 17
By MICHAEL OWEN
22may06
SOUTH Australian secondary school students will be forced to stay in school until they turn 17 from January 1, 2009.
The move is part of a State Government strategy to attack one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the nation and secure the future of the state's skilled workforce base.
The plan, revealed to The Advertiser by Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith, incorporates a curriculum overhaul, the establishment of 10 trade schools and extra teachers.
Raising the school leaving age from 16 to 17 by 2010 was one of more than 70 targets set by the Government in its strategic plan, released in April, 2004.
Under the move, which requires legislative change, young people must remain in traineeship, TAFE or school until they are aged 17.
The leaving age was last increased, from 15 to 16, in 2003.
"We have to lift the school leaving age, introduce a new SACE system and introduce trade schools simultaneously," Dr Lomax-Smith said.
"It would be disastrous to keep young people in school to 17 without doing something different." SA Secondary Principals Association president Bob Heath welcomed raising the leaving age in conjunction with other initiatives. The Opposition ruled out bipartisan support for the increase.
Craigmore High School assistant principal Peter Robertson said "no teacher would be happy with raising the school leaving age to 17, it would be insane".
"Young people who want to stay at school will stay. Those who don't want to stay will just be there to get Austudy and cause problems," he claimed.
Opposition education spokesman Duncan McFetridge said raising the leaving age was a "knee-jerk reaction" the Liberal Party would not support.
Education Department research showed students who left school too early to take up employment often were unemployed in their 20s and found it difficult to get work. The state's youth unemployment rate consistently was among the highest in Australia, with the 12-month average rate last year at 23.3 per cent - the second worst in the country.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for last month showed the SA jobless rate for 15 to 19-year-olds looking for full-time work was up five points to 27.7 per cent - the highest in Australia.
Dr Lomax-Smith said that of those students who started Year 8, only 55 per cent obtained a South Australian Certificate of Education. "The problem is young people are not employable and the irony is we have booming industries," she said. She also said:
SCHOOLS have an enormous drop out rate with many young people becoming uninterested, so there must be a focus on "compulsory education, not compulsory schooling".
THE Education Department would work with the non-government school sector to "retrain the teachers".
TEN trade schools would be developed during the next five years.
THE Government "has to increase the numbers of teachers
Students must stay in class until 17
By MICHAEL OWEN
22may06
SOUTH Australian secondary school students will be forced to stay in school until they turn 17 from January 1, 2009.
The move is part of a State Government strategy to attack one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the nation and secure the future of the state's skilled workforce base.
The plan, revealed to The Advertiser by Education Minister Jane Lomax-Smith, incorporates a curriculum overhaul, the establishment of 10 trade schools and extra teachers.
Raising the school leaving age from 16 to 17 by 2010 was one of more than 70 targets set by the Government in its strategic plan, released in April, 2004.
Under the move, which requires legislative change, young people must remain in traineeship, TAFE or school until they are aged 17.
The leaving age was last increased, from 15 to 16, in 2003.
"We have to lift the school leaving age, introduce a new SACE system and introduce trade schools simultaneously," Dr Lomax-Smith said.
"It would be disastrous to keep young people in school to 17 without doing something different." SA Secondary Principals Association president Bob Heath welcomed raising the leaving age in conjunction with other initiatives. The Opposition ruled out bipartisan support for the increase.
Craigmore High School assistant principal Peter Robertson said "no teacher would be happy with raising the school leaving age to 17, it would be insane".
"Young people who want to stay at school will stay. Those who don't want to stay will just be there to get Austudy and cause problems," he claimed.
Opposition education spokesman Duncan McFetridge said raising the leaving age was a "knee-jerk reaction" the Liberal Party would not support.
Education Department research showed students who left school too early to take up employment often were unemployed in their 20s and found it difficult to get work. The state's youth unemployment rate consistently was among the highest in Australia, with the 12-month average rate last year at 23.3 per cent - the second worst in the country.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for last month showed the SA jobless rate for 15 to 19-year-olds looking for full-time work was up five points to 27.7 per cent - the highest in Australia.
Dr Lomax-Smith said that of those students who started Year 8, only 55 per cent obtained a South Australian Certificate of Education. "The problem is young people are not employable and the irony is we have booming industries," she said. She also said:
SCHOOLS have an enormous drop out rate with many young people becoming uninterested, so there must be a focus on "compulsory education, not compulsory schooling".
THE Education Department would work with the non-government school sector to "retrain the teachers".
TEN trade schools would be developed during the next five years.
THE Government "has to increase the numbers of teachers
kay: 
