Tony Abbott says only the 'right' kids should stay at school after year 10

TONY Abbott has declared only the "right" children should remain at school after year 10, saying the rest may be wasting their time.

TONY Abbott has declared only the "right kids" should stay at school beyond year 10, saying the rest could be wasting their time.

The Opposition Leader said he had doubts about a federal government incentive scheme to get more teenagers to stay in school.

“The other point I want to make is that it's all very well keeping kids at school past year 10 but they've got to be the right kids being kept at school past year 10,” he told radio 2UE.

“A lot of kids would probably be better off in the long run leaving school at year 10 and getting an apprenticeship.”

Under the new incentive scheme, parents can qualify for extra family payments - worth an average of $4000 - if their children stay on to finish year 12.

Mr Abbott said many young people would do better outside the mainstream education in specialist technical schools - a point argued by the former Howard government.

He said he was “far from confident” about the federal government's ability to ensure the widespread availability of school-based apprenticeships.

“I mean, one of the great initiatives of the Howard government was to try to foster these school-based apprenticeships to try to get back to a considerable extent towards, if you like, technical high schools,” he said.

“And I guess I'd want to carefully study this and make sure that the right kids are getting the money and that we really were keeping the right kids at school, because if you've got the wrong kids at school it can end up like a glorified occupational therapy, basically.”

Families Minister Jenny Macklin said Mr Abbott, who had previously supported the education tax bonus, wanted to take money from the pockets of families.

“He is saying that only certain children, only the `right' sort of children, should stay on in secondary school and other children should go out to work.

“Mr Abbott really needs to explain ... which of these teenagers don't deserve support.”

The incentive plan, promised at the 2010 election, will reward parents of 16 to 19-year-olds if their children stay at school until year 12.

Payments, to start on January 1, will be delivered through an income-tested boost to Family Tax Benefit A.

Students would have to stay in full-time secondary school study or a vocational equivalent such as a TAFE course.