YOU report Conor Ryan (adviser to David Blunkett when he was Education Secretary) as saying that we should let pupils quit school at 14 (TES, November 22).
I left school at 15 with no qualifications. I did not want to know about education and continued in this vein while working on a building site until I was 23.
It was only then I thought that I had better get some education. I did a part-time day release course at a local FE college. Now, 27 years later I am still doing a part-time course. In between I have achieved among other qualifications, City and Guilds in three subjects, and an honours degree. I have been an FE lecturer and work as a school teacher.
I wish I could have left school at 14. I was ready for work then. It was only seven or eight years later that I saw the light. A good teacher, parent, counsellor may be able to enlighten a child who wants to be enlightened. But the out-and-out rebel will not see sense. I feel they ought to be able to leave at 14.
David Healey 16 Wittenbury Road Heaton Norris Stockport
