Letter: Shephard's pension changes mean mass exodus of teachers

Sir: Gillian Shephard is right to observe that schools and colleges will not acknowledge all the costs of premature retirement schemes if costs are pooled rather than assigned to particular schools. But who designed the current regime? Conservative governments did so. It is rather rich for a free market orientated politician to lament that schools and teachers acted in their own best interest within a pattern of incentives designed by Conservatives. The problem exists in the form that it does because of the spurious policy of treating educational institutions as though they were firms.

JOHN OLIVER

London EC2