Letter: Select him out

Letter:

Select him out

Sir: If, as Peter Lampl says, selection is "a fact of life" ("Millionaire to subsidise poor pupils", 20 May), let me be the first to select him for deportation to a remote island where he can indulge his rich man's fantasies in safety.

The myth that independent education is automatically better than state education is long overdue for burial.

If independent schools are so good, why don't they cater for those who need education most - the truants, the under-achievers and the disruptives?

The fact is that young people can and do achieve success in a variety of settings. For 19 years I taught at a comprehensive school deemed to be "around the national average" yet the highest grades at GCSE and A-Level were regularly gained.

If we are to learn how well state schools perform, the blunt instrument of league tables should cease to obscure excellence with averages, and we should publish the highest grades gained in each subject. This would do much more for social cohesion that the partial reintroduction of the feudal system as proposed by Mr Lampl.

CHRIS JOHNSON

Bradford, West Yorkshire