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Academic vs vocational schools
PATRICK KIDD should go to the bottom of the class for some of his information on 1940s to 1960s schooling (Public Opinion, Sept 7). My own knowledge of that time conflicts with what he says.
It may have happened that “pupils were taught by unqualified teachers”, but very rarely. It is true that it was not illegal at that time for unqualified staff to teach but, so far as I am aware, they were in junior schools. In any case, I do not know of any teacher training college that failed more than a handful each decade and yet every teacher knows of fellow teachers who are patently unfit for the job.
He says that “at first (secondary modern pupils) were barred from sitting public exams”. This was not true at my school in 1949 when the system was only five years old. Some did extremely well, perhaps hardly surprising when the local grammar school admitted only 7 to 8 per cent of the intake.
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In addition, again in 1949, those pupils who had been successful in external exams were given the opportunity to move to the grammar school sixth form. The school to which I have been referring was a new one, so was perhaps regarded as a leader.
Ian Bremner, Wakefield
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BRIGHT working-class pupils achieve more in grammars than comprehensives. I am a former working-class pupil who attended a grammar school after a selective exam. For the past six years I have been medical officer to a Premiership club’s football academy with 100 trainees recruited from the age of eight. The raison d’être for the establishment of the academy system was to increase the standard of potential recruits to future England teams. Those trainees who become professional footballers are likely to enjoy healthy incomes. For some reason the Government feels that it is all right for the talents of elite footballers to be nurtured in academies, but not for intellectual abilities to be nurtured in grammar schools — benefiting society as much as the individual.
Dr Barrie Smith, Birmingham
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I AM sure Patrick Kidd is entirely correct and let us hope that Shina makes a success of his life. However, there is a sting in the tail.
Those who are unable to handle the national curriculum may be lost to society before the age of 14 via drugs, or whatever, as a result of low self esteem. Those who manage to survive may well become white van men made good but a lack of basic skills and perhaps even learning problems such as dyslexia mean they never really fit in. The sooner your voice is heard the better, before it is too late and our cities have died.
David Elliott, West Ella, Hull
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England expects
WHILE I would not disagree with Ralph McCormack, the chief executive of Havering primary care trust, in his prediction that “the NHS will have to deal with some flak when patients aren’t offered the choices they expect” (Hobson’s choice for patients, Sept 14), it is not so much the NHS as a corporate body that is on the receiving end, but the frontline staff at each of the medical establishments that are seen as promising more than they actually deliver.
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The fact is that if “local systems lack capacity”, the expectations of patients should not have been raised in the first place. Aspiration is one thing, but expectations based on unachievable and unsustainable promises are quite another.
Julian Corlett,
Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire
On the beat
IF BARONESS HENIG really wants to establish a system of overseeing policing at grassroots level she should pop into her local police station and ask the person in charge which is the most efficient of the shifts working out of there (Interview, Sept 14).
It is a fact that some shifts are much better than others at preventing crime, controlling absenteeism and minimising complaints, while taking it in turns to patrol precisely the same area with the same equipment for eight hours per day. Encouraging healthy rivalry between shifts is the obvious solution to enhancing police performance.
John Kenny,
Acle, Norfolk
Age shall not weary
IF THE only thing scientists think of when they get up each day is their work, and they are contributing to society (Still need me when I’m 92? Sept 7), why should their age matter? With absenteeism and apathy at a record high, it’s a credit to these academics, aged 80 and 92 respectively, that they don’t miss a day of work and are as enthusiastic as ever. The headhunting of the British scientist Sir Harry Kroto, 64, to a highly paid job in America just shows how Britain’s ageist attitudes are depriving this country’s workforce of the talents of thousands of older people.
Joyce Glasser, London NW3
The wrong way
I DON’T agree that giant casinos could help with the regeneration of communities (Casinos could fund poor councils, Sept 14). All I can see is yet more gambling addicts, and the lack of a deterrent to prevent youngsters hanging around amusement arcades.
Tim Mickleburgh,
Grimsby, Lincolnshire
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