Sir, Your article “Children belong at school” (Jan 12) illustrates the confusion in the Western mind over what is meant by the word “child”.

Children have been reaching puberty at progressively earlier ages. By what biological measure can modern 18-year-old pupils be considered children? The results of this confusion include 12-year-old “child mothers” and the incarceration of violent young criminals condemned as “putting children behind bars”.

Adulthood arrives with a certain level of mature behaviour. Here, the trend is in the opposite direction. In the 1950s a male of 24 would typically have served in the Armed Forces, settled into a career and have acquired a wife and child, perhaps a mortgage. According to a 2001 Scottish survey, in modern Britain full adulthood is not to be expected before the ages of 35 for men and 34 for women.

Depending on the measure adopted, the appropriate school leaving age could therefore be either 13 or 35. The Islamic measure of responsibility, based on biological (not chronological) age makes more sense.

JOHN CATON
Cupar, Fife

Sir, The Professional Association of Teachers welcomes proposals to raise the school-leaving age as a forward-thinking move.

The economy is changing, with more highly skilled jobs and fewer unskilled ones. The Government’s proposals are the next logical step in a coherent strategy that embraces the Every Child Matters and Extended Schools initiatives.

However, there must be an appropriate curriculum, encompassing both academic and vocational qualifications and with parity between them. There must be support for young people to stay on: it should not be seen by the less motivated as some sort of conscription. There needs to be a carrot rather than a stick to avoid the image of a new, compulsory and onerous National Service.

PHILIP PARKIN
General Secretary, Professional Association of Teachers (PAT), Derby

Sir, Why not raise the school leaving age to 65 and remove unemployment altogether? That would also chime well with the Government’s lifelong learning policy.

NICHOLAS DOBSON
Leeds

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