Letter: Put to the test

IT IS an established engineering principle that what is not regularly measured cannot be properly controlled - as attested by the ever-increasing abundance and sophistication of monitoring equipment in both industrial plant and products. No doubt the often embarrassing and occasionally disastrous consequences of loss of control in this particular context gives it a special urgency, but the principle is, I suggest, of more general application. Accordingly, it surely behoves David Pascall (Letters, 9 May) to explain clearly how he would ensure quality control in the national curriculum in the absence of testing.

I J G Berry

Enfield, Middlesex