Education Letter: Your views

Tony Mooney is very much out of touch in wishing to abolish the English independent schools ("To assist or not to ...?" Education +, April 3). He should instead carefully study the schools to which Mr Blair and his shadow cabinet colleagues are sending their children and then press Mr Blair to pledge that Labour will raise the standards of state education which looks after no less than 92.5 per cent of our children, to match the standards of the independent schools which look after the other 7.5 per cent. At present Mr Blair is doing no such thing; in fact his tax pledges, which glower down upon us from the advertising hoardings, preclude such an initiative.

It is simply naive to ban the independents which would immediately transfer their pupils and staff to schools they already possess across the English Channel, and the English educational system as a whole would lose out.

I and most of my acquaintances are quite willing to pay more taxes for better state education, but in the present political climate Mr Blair is not interested .

Rodney J Smith

Croydon, Surrey