We are 16 going on 17 ...

Following up on the ENGLISH Governments announcements to almost everyone the BBC today reported on the fact that students starting their secondary education this week will be required to continue their compulsory education until they are 17.

In New Zealand the leaving age is 16 and if you have good reason it can be 15. Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have not changed.

In Denmark education is compulsory for children from the 1 August of the calendar year in which the child attains the age of 7 years until the 31 July after the child has received regular education for a period of nine years. Compulsory education ends, however, at the latest on 31 July of the year of the child's seventeenth birthday...

In Norway children are required to attend school for 10 years commencing the calendar year they reach the age of 6.

Wikipedia has a section on this which appears to suggest that 15 is the earliest and 18 is the latest ... so I guess, as usual England sits in the middle.

Surely the important thing is not how long students are in compulsory ( though why it has to be compulsory I am not sure) educationbut how relevant to them and their.

In February of this year Greg Whitby wrote about 'Relevancy or retention?' with regard to students in New South Wales, Australia. This post is well worth a read in this connection.

I just wonder what the students starting school this week think (or what their parents think) of this. And ... it does occur to me that 2013 could be two elections away !