John Culatto
STUDENTS will now have to wait until they are 16-years-old to leave school, under changes to the law passed in Gibraltar’s parliament Thursday.
The Gibraltar Government said the plan had been to make this move in 2019 but the COVID-19 pandemic and recent Brexit talks could have taken its toll in delaying it.
The school leaving age switch was part of a raft of changes that a bill put to the local parliament made to the Education and Training Act of 1974.
The parliamentary amendment also updated the role of the director of education to modern needs.
It updated its text ‘in the context of special educational needs or disability provision’, Minister for Education John Cortes said.
The pandemic continued to rear its ugly head too, with schools being required to offer remote learning if a similar situation arose in the future.
Cortes said the amendment would now require schools to teach children about ‘the duty to provide and promote environmental education’.
This came to the fore as a result of the ‘realisation of the dangers of climate change’, he added, and the need for students to experience nature outdoors.
Religious education would also be more diverse, Cortes said.
He emphasized the law would impress the need for ‘a concerted effort to maintain disciplinary standards in our schools’.
But by far the biggest difference would be to change the school leaving age, an update that affected a small amount of students.
In the UK, the school leaving age was also 15-years-old in the past, but this changed over time.
In recent times, the UK raised it to 18-years-old to make sure that young people have better educational and economic prospects.
Raising the school leaving age was seen as a way to encourage more young people to continue their studies, gain qualifications, and enter the workforce with improved skills.
In recent times, the UK raised it to 18-years-old to make sure that young people have better educational and economic prospects.
Raising the school leaving age was seen as a way to encourage more young people to continue their studies, gain qualifications, and enter the workforce with improved skills.
Finally, the law made sure that there would always be two secondary schools on the Rock.
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