Letter: Schools in crisis

Sir: To proclaim the depoliticising of education on the grounds that there is no longer a debate (leading article, 1 December) is to misread the situation. For politicians of all persuasions education as political football is over; education is no longer "sexy"; it is media-dead.

The crushing of professional independence; the fostering of a regime of repression and harassment; the degrading of the idea of a liberal education and substitution of purely material and market values; the humiliation of vulnerable and disadvantaged schools to make cheap political capital; fast-track preferment for the few leaving a pittance for the rest - all this bespeaks the real state of affairs in education and gives the lie to your analysis. For a more reliable verdict on the quality of life in our schools we need look no farther than the unprecedented crisis of recruitment to the teaching profession.