In the days when I went to school, 80 per cent or more of the students left, at age 15, after completing the Intermediate Certificate, knowing how they were performing in relation to others, and went into all of the jobs that require lower entry levels, such as those that involve only on the job training, an apprenticeship, or the undertaking of a Certificate Course at TAFE.
These jobs still exist today, and I understand now need the School Certificate, which took the place of the old Intermediate Certificate, for entry for the the further qualifications indicated above.However, the age at which students can now enter these jobs is usually 18 as they now have to complete the Higher School Certificate, this being the first and only time, in the present education system, that students [and employers] obtain any real indication of how any student is performing in relation to others in the State.
I suggest a substantial reduction in the amount spent on education could be achieved, and at the same time prove a benefit to the majority of students, simply by bringing back the School Certificate, to the system, in a manner that once again provides the required performance indicators needed by employers. The benefit to students would obviously be the fact that they would no longer have to do the two years of superfluous schooling they now undertake just to end up in such jobs.
Bill Stewart
Port Macquarie
