Anne Corbett Available to Purchase

Who are the young school‐leavers? In some senses they've been with us a long time. They're the boys and girls who have left school at the legally earliest point. And they're the ones for whom committees of enquiry and governments have successively seen one remedy. For the good of the child (and the economic and social well‐being of the country) governments have agreed to higher school‐leaving ages: the idea of 14 was accepted in 1918, of 15 in 1926, of 16 in 1944.