The school leaving age is to be raised to 18 in a bid to ensure all students stay in education long enough to graduate.

Education Minister Randy Horton announced the change at a press conference this afternoon after releasing the dates of a series of meetings he plans to have with parents, students, principals and teachers.

The meetings - three of them to be held in public - are aimed at updating “stakeholders” on changes planned for public schools following last year’s Hopkins report.

Mr. Horton said those attending would be told of a number of amendments to be made to the Education Act, including raising the mandatory school leaving age from 16 to 18 and giving the Education Board more power.

Mr. Horton said: “Now, once a child goes 16, they can leave. We want to make sure that they all stay long enough to graduate. There is not a great percent of students that graduate before they are 16.”

The Minister was asked if the idea was to reduce youth crime by keeping youngsters occupied. He said: “Certainly, we hope that that will help in that way. The important thing is improving the quality of teaching and learning at schools.”

See The Royal Gazette tomorrow for the full story and times and dates for all the meetings.