English And Maths Will Be Compulsory Until 18 Under Labour Reforms

Should English And Maths Be Compulsory Subjects Until 18?
Labour will reveal plans for a
Labour will reveal plans for a
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Children would have to study English and maths until the age of 18 under a Labour government, as the party unveils major changes to the education system.

Labour will reveal plans for a "national baccalaureate" on Monday in the publication of a report on improving the education of 14 to 19-year-olds.

The proposals are part of a package of reforms designed to cut the number of young people not in education, employment or training, improve standards in key subjects and get young people ready for the workplace.

The proposed national baccalaureate would be either a "technical bacc" for those seeking vocational training or a "general bacc" for teenagers following a more traditional academic route.

Available at both GCSE and A-level, it would involve attaining significant skills in both English and maths - as well as a pupil's core subjects - following a personal skills development programme and carrying out an extended project.

Labour's reforms, proposed in the report by the party's skills taskforce, would also involve greater responsibility being placed on schools to track what their pupils go on to do, whether it be further education, training or work.

Schools that fail to ensure pupils progress in this way would face losing funding, with the money used to transform careers guidance in those schools and going to local employers to develop partnership programmes offering structured careers advice.

Almost a million young people are currently NEET because careers advice and guidance is inadequate, Labour says.

Tristram Hunt, Labour's shadow education secretary, said the proposals would address the talents of the "forgotten 50%" of young people who want to pursue vocational routes through education.

Condemning Prime Minister David Cameron's view of vocational education as "at best an after-thought", Hunt said: "Reforms must focus on driving up standards in maths and English, strengthening character and resilience and equipping the labour market of the future with the skills set it needs.

"More of the same just won't do."

Professor Chris Husbands, chairman of the skills taskforce and director of the institute of education at the University of London, said: "In Britain, we have a poor record of delivering high skills and effective qualifications for the forgotten 50%: the half of young people for whom the current qualifications regime simply does not deliver."

He added: "The taskforce has set out plans for radically improved information and advice which will help young people negotiate an ever more complex labour market, and for a deliverable national baccalaureate - a simple framework for qualifications and skills which will make it easier for all young people to make the transition to adulthood.

"What we have set out is do-able and practical. Our economic and our social future depends on getting this right."

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) has highlighted a strong link between strong vocational education and youth unemployment in the UK, Labour said.

Here, 32% of pupils in upper secondary education take vocational courses, and youth unemployment is at 21%.

This compares to 67% taking vocational courses and 10% unemployed in the Netherlands, and 54% and 9% respectively in Norway.

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