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Education and Skills Bill

I intend to use just a minute of the remaining time to highlight new clause 23, which would allow a pupil to leave school after year 9, at the age of 14, to pursue full-time vocational education, provided they had the written permission of their parent or guardian and of their head teacher, and that they had achieved level 5 at key stage 3 in English, maths and science. This country has the big problem of trying to force all children down the same academic route in schools. I believe in horses for courses. Every child is good at something, and we should provide an education system that allows children to pursue their area of expertise and the areas in which they might be able to thrive, rather than force them to stay at school to pursue an academic line when it clearly does not suit them. Some children are playing truant from school and some are causing big problems for teachers in terms of school discipline. Allowing such children to leave school at age 14 to pursue full-time vocational education would re-engage some of them with the education system, it would provide them with the skills they need for future employment and it would improve the discipline and truancy rates in our schools. The proposal is also supported by many teaching unions. Stuart Herdson, who is both a constituent of mine and the immediate past president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, supports it. He has articulated such a proposal on many occasions, and I pay tribute to him for doing so. I hope that the Minister will give serious consideration to the proposal, and to how we can allow children, whatever their expertise, to shine in that particular area and how we can encourage more vocational education, rather than forcing everybody down an academic route.