Education ‘isn’t the answer’

Staying in education longer may make a person smarter, but it may not make them happier, new research suggests.

A new study has found that those teenagers who were made to stay in education until they were 15 after the leaving age rose in the 1940s had a better memory later in life.

But the extra year’s schooling made little difference to their quality of life. Academics based in Manchester and Munich compared the mental abilities of those who turned 14 before the school leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947, with those who were 14 just after the change and stayed in school for an extra year.

Those taking part were given a series of tests, as well as being given a series of questions about their well-being and satisfaction with life.