By Gary Eason BBC News Online education staff

There has been a fall in the number of 16 year olds in England who have stayed in education or training.

The government appears set to introduce a national allowance of up to �40 a week to try to persuade more youngsters to stay in education beyond the compulsory age of 16.

There is also expected to be a relaunched advertising campaign.

But the previous Don't Quit Now drive - which featured Harry Enfield's comic teen Kevin and cost millions of pounds - does not seem to have worked.

The following year slightly more 16 year olds did "quit".

Ministers want more young people to increase their level of qualifications and skills, and aspire to having a majority experiencing higher education by 2010.

But figures just released by the National Statistics office show that the proportion of 16 year olds in education and training at the end of 2001 was an estimated 86.5% - down from 86.6% at the end of 2000 and from 88% a decade ago.

There were a few percentage points more young women than young men.

Changing patterns

The breakdown of the figures gives the lie to the idea of "sixth formers doing A-levels" - that traditional model accounts for a minority.

Just over 71% of 16 year olds were in full-time education at the end of last year.

This consisted of some 38% studying for A and AS-levels, 7.5% for Advanced GNVQs or Vocational A-levels, and 4.6% for Level 3 NVQs and equivalent vocational qualifications.

Another 7.6% were studying for Intermediate and Foundation GNVQs, 2.5% for GCSEs, and 10.5% for NVQ at Levels 1 and 2 and other qualifications.

Most are not in school.

Almost 37% were studying full-time in further or higher education colleges, 28.3% in maintained schools and 6.1% in independent schools, while 7.3% were part-time.

More than 40% of the 16 year olds in full-time education were also working.

The pie chart below shows what 16 year olds who are still in education are doing:

Where post-compulsory learning is taking place: