Letter: Hard lesson

AFTER watching the utterly appalling Tory party conference, I read with absolute delight your editorial comment 'Don't blame us, we're in power' (10 October). But I wonder why it was necessary to put a sting in the tail by suggesting that 'bad teaching in schools' is a 'proper target' for ministers? I wonder on what grounds this was included?

I have not, in 30 years of teaching (not including my own school experiences), met a teacher who teaches badly. Perhaps there are some somewhere who cope, as many have to, with the demands of the national curriculum (as demanded by this government) but without the necessary funding.

I, like many teachers,work a 50- to 60-hour week, for which we are underpaid and unappreciated. I teach a class of 29. Eight of these have learning difficulties - not as a result of bad teaching I might add.

In your own words 'to argue' that this (bad teaching) is a problem ofsignificant proportions is absurd.

Name and address withheld