Schools minister says 'drop-out' rate is national disgrace

An attack on the "shame" and "disgrace" of Britain's record in persuading 16-year-olds to stay on at school is delivered today by David Miliband, the Schools minister.

In an interview with The Independent, he said it was a national disgrace that there were still references to people "staying on" after 16 rather than "dropping out" if they left. "It must be one of the most stunning statistics that we are 20th out of 24 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries for staying-on rates at 17," he said. "To be 22nd out of 24 at 18 is a national disgrace."

Mr Miliband said priority would be given to changing the curriculum for pupils aged 14 to 16 when reforms of secondary education are announced next month. Ministers want to make education more attractive to a wider range of this age group to encourage them to stay on.

The reforms will try to rid education of the divide between vocational and academic qualifications, with emphasis on encouraging 14-year-olds to opt for new vocational GCSEs in subjects such as engineering, manufacturing and health care. They will also allow more 14-year-olds to spend time at college or on work experience.

Plans for a matriculation diploma for 19-year-olds – recording all their achievements at school, such as sporting records and not just exam passes – are likely to be put on the back burner.

"The matriculation diploma is a longer-term issue," Mr Miliband said. "Some people said that it was too bold, others said it wasn't bold enough. We are ruminating on that."

Headteachers criticised the original idea for three different tiers of diploma. John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, argued: "It is difficult to see why a separate certificate is needed for those with higher grades."

Mr Miliband talked of the need to continue to press for improved standards in primary education. National curriculum test results out later this month are expected to show that ministers have failed to achieve their targets of getting 80 per cent of 11-year-olds to reach the required standards in English and 75 per cent in maths this year. A survey by The Independent of local education authorities indicated that they were likely to miss both targets.

Mr Miliband said the Government had to continue with the drive for improvements in maths and English, because one in four youngsters was still not reaching the required standard in either subject, but emphasised the importance of also stretching the brightest pupils. He said the fact that one in four 11-year-olds had also reached a level well above what should be expected of the average child showed that teachers were not just "teaching to the test" but were aiming higher than that.

* With 10 days to go before the start of the new academic year, almost 45 per cent of all postgraduate training courses for secondary school teachers in England still have vacancies, figures from the Graduate Teacher Training Registry have shown.

More than two thirds of maths, French and German courses still have vacancies. About half of physics and chemistry courses are currently unfilled.

In London, the North-west and the east of England, more than half of courses still have vacancies to be filled.