A campaign to lower the voting age to 16 has been backed by some teenagers at Wheatley Park School -- provided pupils are taught more about politics at school.

A coalition of youth groups and electoral reformers is calling for Britain's 1.5m 16- and 17-year-olds to be allowed to vote in the next General Election.

The Votes at 16 coalition, which includes the Children's Rights Alliance for England, the Electoral Reform Society, the British Youth Council and the National Union of Students, wrote to the main party leaders, calling on them to make a pre-election pledge to consider the move.

It argues that if 16- and 17-year-olds are able to leave home, get a full-time job, pay taxes, raise children and join the armed forces they should also be able to vote.

Jonathan Meakin, 17, is representing the Conservatives in his school election today (Thursday) because he supports their election pledges on school discipline, drugs and lower taxes.

He said: "I would like to see 16-year-olds able to vote.

"I don't know how politically aware most are, but having the vote might make them take more interest.

"School mock elections are a good way of engaging young people in politics.

"It makes them think about the issues instead of dismissing politics as boring." Michael Betteridge, 16, is representing the Liberal Democrats, who have pledged to lower the voting age, and has been a member of the party for two years.

He backed the Votes at 16 campaign but said pupils needed more politics education at school to make informed choices.

He said: "I agree with giving 16-year-olds the vote, and I would want to vote myself if I could.

"There are arguments against it because many 16-year-olds are not politically minded, but if that's the case they probably wouldn't want to vote anyway.

"There needs to be more politics in education -- we don't learn much about politics in school and that's why young people don't know much about it."

Green candidate Kier Williams, 17, has been delivering election leaflets to boost the chances of the party's Oxford East candidate Jacob Sanders in the real election.

He said: "Many 16-year-olds don't understand politics well enough to vote, but I'm keen for 16- year-olds to have the vote.

"I would have liked to have voted myself this time round."

But the school's Labour candidate, Joshua Warwick-Smith, 16, who hopes to follow a career in politics himself when he leaves school, disagreed.

He said: "I don't think it would be a good idea to give 16-year-olds the vote.

"Their opinions are too biased on issues like Iraq and top-up fees and they don't take into consideration the wider picture.

"Two years might seem like a short time but you learn a lot between the ages of 16 and 18, you jump from being a youth to an adult and your opinions change.

"Although students have been engaged with the mock election, they haven't always taken it seriously and it's turned into a bit of a popularity contest."