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"That it would happen in Great Britain – which has given humanity so many of its very greatest scientific minds, including Issac Newton and Francis Bacon – is beyond belief. "
Well, that same Francis Bacon wrote: “Concerning the advancement of learning, I do subscribe to the opinion… that, for grammar schools, there are already too many… the great number of schools which are in your Highness’s realm doth cause a want, and likewise an overthrow [surfeit] – both of them inconvenient and one of them dangerous; for by means thereof they find want in the country and towns, both of servants for husbandry and of apprentices for trade; and on the other side there being more Scholars bred than the State can prefer and employ… it must needs fall out that many persons will be bred unfit for other vocations and unprofitable for that in which they were bred up, which will fill the realm full of indigent, idle and wanton people…”
Francis Bacon, 1611 letter to James I.
So, the new regulation are addressing the growing shortage "of servants for husbandry and of apprentices for trade". As such, it is the most wise measure and is to be supported and applauded.