I don't see how raising the leaving age is going to stop the have a baby route out of school. It's been going on for a long, long time... Unless you have a lot of schools like Sydney's Plumpton High, then you're going to have a lot of kids still use the baby exit path. Do you really think the government won't pay benefits to parents under the age of 17?

I have to say from the perspective of a secondary teacher, the sooner some kids are out, the better. Some kids just aren't built for a classroom and will never thrive in that environment. Keeping them at school is hard on them, hard on the teachers and hard on the other students. If they raise the leaving age, then they damned well better back it up with alternative paths out of the education system that don't force kids to sit through another two years of irrelevant (to them) schooling. More vocational education is needed if they are going to do this.

BW