Lynn,
Here's what happens in England and Wales (Scotland is different again
). I know that it is different in other places in Europe.
Some schools do stuff like have a Day of Celebration (which is what my school called it), where they hand out your exam result certificates. But because those don't arrive until sometime after the results are out in August, by that time people are off in the real world. Our Day of Celebration (it's one of those nice inclusive terms, it probably was once called Prize Giving Day or something) didn't happen until the next Easter, almost a year after you sat the exams. I don't know of any schools that have a graduation ceremony like the ones you guys have.
Education is compulsary until you're 16, but when you are 16 you sit your GCSEs (OWLs
). So even if you do leave at 16, you have completed your formal, compulsary education, and possibly have some qualifications too. There's a miriad choices of what you do next, that I won't try to really explain, because otherwise we will be here for a while, and this post is long enough.
One option is to study for A'Levels (NEWTs) and these are the traditional entry route to university (but you can get to university with a whole range of other qualifications now as well). These are often taught in the same school that you did your GCSEs at, but, like I said, there are lots of other options as well!
I think that the majority of people who leave school at 16 go onto study or work for a further qualification of some sort. But the ones that don't go on to further study post-16 are more likely to be the ones who didn't pass many of their GCSEs in the first place, and although we don't call them High School drop-outs, people do end up in the dead end jobs. If they get a job at all.
Nowadays, it's hard to get any where with out having some form of post-16 qualification, so yes, Harry is possibly setting himself up for a difficult time career-wise in the future. However, I think that he has other issues on his mind right now.
Plus, he does have the advantage of his reputation. I don't think he needs to worry too much
And it's different in our Muggle world, I'm sure Wizard papers don't spend so much time discussing the thousands of 16 year olds who leave school every year with no qualifications and no job and just disappear off the map...
I'll stop now. In summary, our education system is complicated.
Helga
