Lessons in life more valuable

Rampant yob culture, propagated in over-crowded classrooms which lack the discipline necessary to correct errant behaviour, will not be improved by an enforced extension of full-time education.

Already over-burdened taxpayers will be required to fund not only enhanced facilities to accommodate this level of student growth, but will be forced to support family allowances for the additional two years of study. Teenagers commonly cite boredom as an excuse for their destructive extra-curricular activities, which can only be exacerbated by the frustration of feeling imprisoned in a juvenile atmosphere until adulthood.

Maturity is engendered in the young by exposure to adult influence in the working environment, where common objectives are achieved only by organised team effort and disruption is not tolerated.

My generation left the classroom behind them at the age of 14, but continued their education in the University of Life, which often proved to be of greater value.

While the proposed extension of schooling until the age of 18 will achieve the perceived objective of reducing unemployment statistics, it will achieve little in the way of academic improvement.

It will, however, foster the gang culture which is, sadly, such a feature in today's educational establishments.

Alan V Harrison, Julian Close, Great Wyrley.