Education targets : LETTERS

From Mr Jeff Rooker, MP Sir: I fail to see the relevance of the remarks of Doug McAvoy, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers ("Pupils fail to reach education targets", 24 January) when he talks of gauging average performance and therefore expecting some pupils to be above and others below.

I may be wrong , but the targets are the expected basics, not the norms. As such, anyone below is a cause for concern, and David Blunkett was quite right to say so. It's a shame Mr McAvoy could not say the same.

Expecting some pupils to be below the basics is one of the key things wrong with old education thinking. If we are to get everyone ready to enter post-compulsory education, this has to change.

Yours sincerely, JEFF ROOKER MP for Birmingham Perry Bar (Lab)

House of Commons London, SW1

24 January