Parents could be proscuted & fined fr non attendance

[Zurdo]

Like the many kids that are railroaded into attending university that would be far better off learning a trade the pursuit of academic qualifications is wasted effort for so many individuals.

And the opposite of course. I took a technical course at high school, most of us did, the school being in the biggest industrial suburb in the country at the time. A class mate was like me, he didn't shine at any subject at all, just in school because that is what we did. Like me he took an apprenticeship as a mechanic. Years later when I was running a service station workshop he came in for a WoF, and I asked what he was doing these days...still a mechanic ? No, he was a research chemist. We don't find our right place in the world until we are long out of school.