LETTER : Giving children the best

YOUR editorial on education ("Poor results of an elite system", 27 August) is tendentious nonsense. There is no logical connection between celebrating success in GCSE or A-levels on the one hand and ignoring the needs of the majority on the other. If we really wish to bring all children up to a high standard of basic proficiency then we must surely have national standards and a national curriculum, a philosophy which has been fought tooth and nail by the teaching unions, not just in detail but in principle.

At the same time we should be recognising the legitimacy of different talents and skills in different children, demanding high levels of achievement from all our children, rewarding success and discouraging sloth. Belittling success in public examinations forms no part of a worthwhile philosophy of education.

R A Fisken

Bedale, North Yorkshire