KEY POINTS:
The Government is considering raising the age up to which students must stay in some kind of formal training.
However, the National Party said today that improving schooling, not making students stay on for longer, was the answer.
At present the legal school leaving age is 16
and students must seek an exemption if they wish to leave before then.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the Government was looking at raising the age to 17, but also widening the scope of the training students would have to stay in to include trades or other skill-based learning.
"Clearly there are also other education opportunities outside the school gate for people to be training in," she said on TV One's Agenda Programme.
National Party education spokeswoman Katherine Rich said putting the focus on the leaving age was wrong.
She said secondary schools needed to take a closer look at what they are offering.
"I believe we must do more to keep kids switched on to learning," Ms Rich said.
She said leaving school early has been linked to adverse health and low income later in life but students who have lost interest in studying need to be given opportunities.
"The aim is to ensure that if they've left school, that they've gone on to something like training or genuine work opportunities or an apprenticeship," Ms Rich said.
She said to raise the age from 16 to 17 will be unsuccessful because those students leaving early have "disengaged" from school during the preceding years, not months.
Yesterday Helen Clark told delegates at Labour's annual conference that boosting skill levels of school leavers was vital to transforming the economy.
Research suggested that only about half the workforce had the necessary education and skills to flourish in a knowledge economy.
"We've virtually eliminated youth unemployment, but now we must look at what jobs our young people are leaving school competent to do," Helen Clark said.
"The age to which young people should be required to be in formal education or training, boosting the level of their achievement while in it, and how to upskill the existing work force are all under consideration for the new plan we are developing for the next stage of New Zealand's economic transformation."
- NZPA