SCHOOL LEAVING AGE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17418, 31 March 1922, Page 3

SCHOOL LEAVING AGE.

AUSTRALIAN EDUCATIONISTS' VIEWS. (fhovi oub own correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 25. Some interesting views regarding the age to which a boy should continue his education in order that ho may be best fitted to become a good citizen have just been expressed by Mr It. P. Franklin, headmaster of the Melbourne Grammar School, in connexion with the hearing of a. Wages Board appeal for commercial clerks. . Mr Franklin held that it was most desirable that a boy should remain a school till he was sixteen or seventeen. His reasons were that from too educational point of view those were tli3 critical years in a boy's lifo, and he was more likely to be able to do efficient y whatever he had to do later on - , - v not going to work earlier iie would lose something diuing, certainly, the firs.' three and possibly a littlo longer, as compared with the boy who entered business at fifteen, but when ho ha thoroughly- mastered tho business by experience he would have a far bet er chance, and his success in business would be greater. The granting o wages commencing at fifteen and increasing all the time was iikelv to pievent. the boy staying at school until the ages he had mentioned. The lug firms took the view that tney had to i-ay a boy more than he was worth at 21, but in a concern as big as theirs it was probably worth while. The smaller emolover could not stand thp.t. The matter seemed to him to bo a veiy simp e thing to adjust. If boys who entered at ,1 .Uter age did >'ot receive 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 would then be based not only on age, but also on experience. It was veiv desirable that the wa.ces for a boy o. fifteen or sixteen should be very small, so that he should nit be tempted to leave school, and his parents would not be tempted to take Jiim away from school at such an early age.