Clark borrows school leaving age policies from Downing St.

Helen Clark today announced a new age of 18, instead of 16, for students to either stay at school or be in approved vocational training. She is borrowing policies, not from Washington, but from Downing Street.

Raising the school leaving age to 18 in favour of giving young people "worthless" qualifications will destroy their job opportunities, said a think tank paper published as the education and skills bill gets its second reading in the Commons today.

I havent read the speech yet, but Clark is expected to comment on the school leaving age in line with this Guardian article. Here`s Ed Balls.

We must not give up on the young people who reach 16 and simply feel there is nothing out there for them. It's a shocking waste of talent and potential and it is virtually always young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds that slip through the net.

This legislation..will give those young people better skills and a better future, reducing their chances of getting on the wrong side of the law by giving them something worth working towards

The weird thing about Clarks policy is that we have a school leaving age of 16. Many students leave school before 16. What will change by raising the school age to 18 if students arent in training - apart from an increase in truancy? I`ll be doing a post on that soon.

Oh, and look who Radio Left Wing interviews to get a reaction: Youthlaws John Hancock, who criticises Key's speech and says people are being used as a political football and has no voice on the political process. They were the comments he made when he campaigned to remove Section 59.

update speech is here Even Labour supporters think it is bad.