Passage One
One of the strongest reasons for the raising of the school leaving age has been that it will bring us nearer to the ideal of “equal opportunity”.
Many people like to think of our present system of schooling as providing plenty of steps up the ladder of success for clever children. It would be good to think that no one who is really bright can fail to become successful when the state system is apparently so thorough. It is obvious, for instance, that many children from less rich homes reach university or do well in other ways.
Unfortunately, we now have plenty of evidence that many children of every level of ability do much less well than they could. For instance, during the years of national military service it was possible to test the intelligence of all males aged between 18 and 20. Half of those soldiers who were placed in the two highest ability groups had left schools at 15.
It has also been shown that percentage of working class children going to university is almost the same now as it was in 1939. One study of 5,000 children from birth to 21 years old indicated that up to half the bright pupils from working class homes left school when they reached 16 years old. Moreover, there is no difference in intelligence between the sexed, but far more boys than girls stay in education after 16.
It is clear form this and much other evidence that many children are still leaving school too early to benefit form the prizes----money, social respectability, and interesting jobs, which higher education gives. It is clear too that the reasons why such children leave have much to do with their social circumstances. Their parents often need the extra money another wage-earner can bring in; they do not value education for itself because their own was probably dull and unhappy. It is not so much that they force their sons and daughters to leave school, rather that they tend to say, “it’s up to you.”