Fame lures school dropouts

Children are increasingly dropping out of school because they believe they can become pop stars and sporting greats, a minister warned yesterday.

They are neglecting their education under the impression they can become rich and successful without gaining qualifications.

Skills Minister Ivan Lewis said teenagers' dreams of becoming the next Pop Idol or David Beckham are hampering efforts to persuade them of the value of education.

He admitted that far too many youngsters are dropping out of education and training at age 16.

Instead, children need to be convinced that the best road to success and fulfilment is

through a good education. Mr Lewis said that too many fail to realise that achieving qualifications is most Britons' only way of improving their standard of living.

Giving evidence to the Commons Education Select Committee, Mr Lewis said: 'There are far too many out there who haven't got to Base One in believing that education is part of the solution in getting what they want for their lives.

'A growing number of young people think the route to success is now through Pop Idol or through the David Beckham route. They don't necessarily assume as we do that education is a good thing.' This is particularly the case where parents have little or no expectation that their children could do well at school.

Mr Lewis told MPs: 'We need to make the case to them, particularly where parental aspiration doesn't exist, that education is exceptionally important.'

Schools minister David Miliband admitted Britain has the fourth highest dropout rate from school in the industrialised world.

Only the Slovak Republic, Mexico and Turkey have worse records at persuading teenagers to continue in education or training after the age of 16.

In Germany, 80 per cent of 18-year-olds stay on in education, compared with just 31 per cent in the UK.

The dropout rate has stayed stubbornly high in recent years despite improving GCSE results.

Earlier this week, ministers announced that more than half of 16-year-olds will be paid up to £30 per week plus bonuses to turn up to school - amounting to £2,800 over two years.

Mr Miliband told the committee that the Government has improved flexibility in the curriculum to allow disaffected youngsters to study subjects they are interested in.

Meanwhile, ministers have commissioned a review of the qualifications system in a bid to stretch the brightest pupils and revamp vocational education.

Mr Lewis said employers large and small need to do more to help in the design of job-related courses.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in