Aust. pupils paid to stay at school

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 34

Aust. pupils paid to stay at school

NZPA Sydney An Australian campaign has been launched to try to get teenagers to stay on at school.

While there have been calls in New Zealand for the Government to consider raising the school leaving age to 18, the Australian Government has opted for the payment of allowances to encourage pupils to remain in the classroom. Its radio and magazine advertising campaign focuses on Austudy, the new student assistance scheme under which secondary

school pupils aged 16 and over will be eligible for an allowance of up to $45 a week.

Leaflets outlining the scheme, which will begin next year, will be distributed to every secondap' and tertiary institution in Australia.

An Education Department official in Canberra said that under Austudy, a means-tested allowance would be paid directly to pupils and would be taxable.

At present, any allowance was paid to parents. The Minister of Education, Senator Susan Ryan,

said Austudy benefits would be progressively increased to bring them up to the corresponding levels of the unemployment benefit.

The scheme would be fully operational in 1989, when allowances would be indexed to inflation. Mrs Ryan said the scheme was set up because “we need as many students as possible staying on to at least the end of Year 12 (seventh form), if we are to have a highly skilled workforce to meet tomorrow’s challenges. z “A major aim is to tell young people it no longer pays to leave school early.” In New Zealand, pressure to raise the schoolleaving age has come from at least two Labour members of Parliament —- an Associate Minister of Finance, Mr Prebble, and the chairman of the Government caucus committee on education, Mr Noel Scott. Mr Prebble said recently that too many young people were leaving school too early, and it was thought-provoking that nations such as West Germany had an 18-year-old leaving age.