Fourteen or Fifteen ?
The Government's Education Bill has come under hot fire during the last week at the hands both of the National Union of Teachers and of the Association of Education Committees. That is not surprising, for the Bill as it stands is little likely to achieve the end at which it aims. In various districts where local authorities have already raised the leaving- age to 15, with exemptions in favour of " beneficial occupation," it has been found that to stay till 15 is the exception rather than the rule. If exemptions are granted on the same scale under the new.Bill, it is clear that it cannot achieve its expressed purpose, to ensure that at least the majority of children in this country shall be educated until the age of 15. It is really irrelevant what the definition of " beneficial " employment may be, though indeed the absence of any definition must throw the entire system- into confusion.
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