The Scottish Conservatives have outlined a bold new proposal to lower the school leaving age below 16 in an effort to expand opportunities for young people and increase the country’s economic potential.
Read Russell Findlay’s full speech below 👇
Education forms the bedrock of our society and economy.
But it is so much more than that.
Education challenges us and makes us think
It excites and inspires us.
It opens the door to opportunity and success.
Education is the universal passport for anyone, no matter their background, to a better life.
For hundreds of years, we truly understood that in Scotland.
In the 17th century, our country democratised education by deciding that every single parish would have its own school.
Four of the UK’s six ancient universities, those founded before 1600, are here in Scotland.
Scotland was a beacon of knowledge that lit up the world.
That zeal for learning saw our country flourish.
We made trailblazers and pioneers, global giants of economics, science, engineering, medicine and letters.
From Adam Smith to Alexander Fleming, from James Watt to Robert Burns …
It is no exaggeration that it was Scots of yesteryear who built the world of today.
This proud history makes today’s reality even more tragic.
Scottish schooling has been allowed to deteriorate.
Once world-leading, now mediocre.
Ranked average in international league tables produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
We were overtaken and then left behind by other countries including England, Ireland, Belgium and Estonia.
Attainment in science and maths are at a record low.
Just days ago it was confirmed that the attainment gap between Scotland’s richest and poorest pupils widened last year.
A decade ago, the SNP government said that closing the gap was its number one priority.
Nicola Sturgeon boasted about her intent to eliminate the attainment gap and asked us to judge her on her record.
We should do so.
This descent into mid-table mediocrity is no fault of Scotland’s smart and industrious pupils or our inspiring and dedicated teachers.
No, it is not on them.
It was big-thinking politicians who made Scotland an educational powerhouse.
And it was small-minded politicians who decided to embrace average.
That is the great, and unspoken, scandal about the diminishment of Scottish education:
It has been by design, not accident.
Since devolution, under Labour and the SNP, we have fallen fast and we have fallen hard … We are still falling.
Many pupils leave school lacking the knowledge they would have had 30 years prior.
In 2025, bright kids from disadvantaged backgrounds have even less chance to improve their lot.
Far too many lack basic literacy and numeracy.
Here’s a headline from last week’s Sunday Times: Quarter of 11-year-olds cannot read, write or count properly.
Here’s another headline this week: Pupils with 5 Highers falls to lowest rate in a decade.
This is to our national shame.
And this has profound consequences for our economy and public services.
Ask any business person and they will tell you about their frustrations of finding employees with the right skills.
Some will tell you about young adults who cannot even read, write or count.
In today’s ultra competitive global market, when businesses cannot recruit the right people they either go under or go elsewhere.
This shrivels the economy and reduces tax revenues, resulting in less money for public services.
The need for change is not just desirable but necessary and urgent.
My party is putting forward an agenda for change.
We are the only party at Holyrood who sincerely want to overhaul Scottish education.
We’ve already set out ambitious proposals to stop the rot.
Many of these are consistent with some of the previous ideas set out by Reform Scotland’s Commission on School Reform.
This evening, I want to propose a bold idea that I think deserves serious consideration and debate.
A proposal that could transform opportunities for those young people who are being left behind.
For decades, Scotland’s minimum school leaving age has been 16.
The consensus has long been that this should be either retained or increased.
In recent years, my own party has echoed this view.
This was made with the good intention — that it might benefit children by requiring them to knuckle down and learn.
This was the right goal — but was it the right approach?
Instead of raising the school leaving age, as conventional wisdom has it, we should explore doing the opposite.
Lowering it to 15, maybe even 14.
Too many young people become trapped in a system that isn’t working for them.
Even worse, far too many exit from it altogether.
Sometimes referred to as Ghost Children, they are often consigned to a life-shortening life of poverty, reliant on state benefits.
Some become targeted for recruitment into the destructive misery of organised crime, often coupled with addiction.
There are already some people working hard to help prevent these outcomes.
The innovative Barnardos Works project mentors 15-year-olds who are at risk of becoming ghost children.
We need to be honest that for many in Scotland today, school isn’t working.
Please understand that this is not about writing off these young people.
It is the very opposite of that.
It is having the courage to admit that the existing system is causing real and often lifelong harm.
What we want to do is identify and provide the right opportunity for each individual.
We would start by refusing to accept the normalisation of illiteracy and innumeracy.
No-one would be deprived of these fundamental life skills.
It is then about guiding each individual onto the best path suited to their aspirations.
Those who are smart and able but have no interest in textbooks.
Locked out by a system that tells them that university is the apex of achievement and anything else is a failure.
We need to end this outdated thinking.
I recently visited Thales in Govan and Collins Aerospace in Prestwick to meet their young apprentices.
Why don’t we encourage more young people to take advantage of such exciting and enriching opportunities?
Why should the state stop young people from taking up a direct route into training and employment?
If they’re ready for it, if their parents and teachers believe it suits them, shouldn’t this be explored as a viable alternative?
That is my central proposal this evening.
It is about giving young people an opportunity to continue in a form of hybrid education that is better suited to their talents.
Upon leaving school before the age of 16 they would still be required to stay in education.
But it would be a form of education that works for them.
A fast track to opportunity, whether college or an apprenticeship.
And for Scotland’s economy, it would mean:
More skilled workers to help businesses grow.
A stronger workforce to attract overseas investors.
And fewer skills gaps which feed an unsustainable reliance on immigration.
By developing our proposal hand-in-hand with businesses, we could make Scotland’s economy fit for the future.
This is a bold proposal, I accept that. But there’s some interesting research to hand.
A recent study from the European Sociological Review looked at 4 European countries.
It found no evidence to link the raising of the school leaving age with better outcomes for pupils.
And when Scotland’s school leaving age was raised to 16, back in 1972, the decision had its critics.
One said, and I quote,
“Youngsters who are already badly adjusted to society, and who are now required to stay unwillingly at school for yet another year, are moving increasingly to violence and delinquency, and this is as infectious in the school situation as lice in pupils’ hair.”
He went on to say that before raising the leaving age to 16, (I again quote): “Schools were achieving remarkable success with this age group, and more and more were voluntarily staying on.”
He ended by asking (also quoting):
“How much better it would have been to pursue a positive policy of encouragement and incentives rather than the negative one of compulsion and sanction?”
The speaker might surprise you.
It was a man called John Pollock.
He was a former general secretary of the EIS teaching union, leading light of the STUC, and chair of Scottish Labour.
In other countries which have lower school leaving ages than Scotland, there’s emerging evidence to support our idea.
In South Korea, students can leave school at the age of 15 to attend specialist schools to prepare them for work in high-skilled trades.
Around 70 per cent of the learning is hands-on, with the rest spent on foundational academic subjects.
Pupils learn about robotics, electronics, biotechnology and engineering.
Schools collaborate with industry to design the curriculum.
These industry partners provide mentorships, internships, and real-world opportunities to put learning into practice.
In Germany and Austria, 15-year-olds can combine education with vocational training.
Similar schemes exist in Australia.
In Scotland, such an approach would of course come with challenges.
But where there is the will, important considerations including child protection can surely be overcome.
That all said, I can already imagine some in Scotland’s political and educational establishments shouting me down.
People such as the trade unions, civil servants and John Swinney, a former education secretary who presided over decline.
This is to be expected.
Across society, those with vested interests instinctively defend the status quo and oppose change.
But their way has failed. It is failing.
The only grade they deserved is an F.
They are not interested in change.
Because they are fearful of change.
And they are too weak to fight for change.
This is why the SNP has spent so many wasted years stuck in policy limbo.
Producing review after review, strategy after strategy, talking shop after talking shop…
But without changing anything.
A generation of young Scots let down.
Our country and our children cannot afford this miserable decline.
We must change Scotland’s schools for the better.
And offer new opportunities to this generation and those who follow.
This idea is grounded in common-sense conservative values – opportunity for all, encouraging aspiration and giving people the tools to succeed through hard work.
Empowering young people is an investment for them and for us all.
Writing them off is shameful.
Thank you.
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