SCHOOL LEAVING AGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 10 April 1922, Page 2

SCHOOL LEAVING AGE

The view that boys should continue their education until the age of 16 or 17 years was expounded by Mr R, lb Franklin, headmaster of the Melbourne Grammar School, who -was called as a witness during the hearing of a wages board appeal for commercial clerks. His reasons wore that from the educational point of view, the sixteenth and seventeenth were the critical rears in a boy's life. By not going to work earlier he would lose something during, certainly the. first, three years, and p'ossifdy a- little longer, as compared with the boy who entered business at 15, but when lie had thoroughly mastered the business hy experience he would have a- far better chance, and his success in business would he greater. The granting of wages commencing at 15 and increasing all the time was'likely to prevent the boy staying at school until the ages he had mentioned. The matter seemed to him to be a. very simple thing to Mjjust. If boys who entered at a later age did notrecoive a, minimum wage at 21, but at a period of, say, four years from the date of entry it Would remedy it. The minimum Wage woidd then ho based not only on a be, but also on experience. It was very desirable that the wages for a hoy of 15 or 16' should he very small, so that- ho should not he tempted! to leave sell obi, nhd his parents would, not lie templed to take him away from school at such an early date.