THE recent influx of migrant children into schools with a high percentage of ethnic minority children is very worrying.

Before this sudden changing scenario, the local schools were already coping with children whose first language is not English, as well as children with behaviour problems and a lot of children from impoverished background.

The teachers are doing as best as they could to teach and to keep up with targets and league tables. It was always an uphill struggle, like climbing an ice mountain.

The Government never provides as much financial aid as needed. The schools were failing pupils and, sadly, some good schools had to close.

We now have a sea-change situation where a high number of Eastern European children, from a diverse culture and with limited English, are coming to Rotherham schools.

Yet the local schools can't cope because they don't have enough teachers or the resources to go round, hence the children already in school lose out on education.The Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) is a small drop in the ocean compared to what is actually needed.

Rather than putting the migrant children into the already pressurised local schools, the council should allocate places in other schools that don't have children from ethnic backgrounds. This way all the schools will experience the rich and wonderful diverse culture of Britain.

Anger of the Israelis

From: Dave Langfield, Dorchester Road, Huddersfield.

I AM writing with some observations after a recent visit to Israel. For some reason, the television news services seem to misunderstand the conflict between peoples of the Middle East and take very little time to report incidents in Israel and the occupied territories.

This tends to give the British population a misconception of what the region is experiencing. The public seem to think that Israel is a nation of Jewish people who have fenced themselves off and want to keep a barrier between themselves and all other peoples. This is far from the truth.

I found Israel to be an all inclusive nation. I also found that most people in the region, both Arabs and Israelis, want to make peace, but there are a few who prefer to cause trouble and terrorise. They have the same mentality as those who bombed our Tube stations and destroyed the Twin Towers on 9/11.

In fact, they are terrorising innocent people of their own race who do want to make peace with Israel. These people want all for themselves, exclusively. These are the racists of the region.

My most recent visit to Israel, although marvellous, left me with a lingering worry. The last major skirmish with Hezbollah who fired Iranian-made missiles into Israel, the constant barrage of missiles from Gaza into Israeli towns and the recent shooting of students in Jerusalem has made Israel very angry. Although the Israelis are a people desperate to make peace, public opinion will cause this democratic people to vote with anger. I have a feeling their patience is running out.

Stamp of approval

From: G Firth, Westgate Lane, Lofthouse, Wakefield.

IN reply to the letter by Mrs Hilary Holt (Yorkshire Post, March 15), I would agree with the comments she makes. However, I don't think that anyone – no matter how strong their feelings for the Ridings – would object to using the post codes when it is designed to speed the delivery of post to everyone.

Regarding the Royal Mail's involvement in creating "imaginary place" county names in the past, I am given to understand that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) at Swansea have an arrangement with the Royal Mail, whereby, if they quote a postcode on the correspondence that they post out, they do not have to give a county name.

If you look at any correspondence from the DVLA, including the log book (form V5C), you will see that a county name is never used. Why the Royal Mail would want to interfere with county names is hard to understand especially when, provided a letter has the correct street name, number of the property, town name, and that the post code is correct, it would not matter if the county name was given as the County of Never Never Land because their sorting machines are designed to read the postcode.

State of independents

From: John G Davies,
Alma Terrace, East Morton, Keighley.

LET me spell out in blunt language to Bernard Dineen (Yorkshire Post, March 17) the reasons why I strongly object to independent schools.

Independent schools are an important cog in a corrupt educational system. The Government and the Opposition are dominated by a public school/Oxbridge-educated elite, as are the professions and the media. The intake of these two universities is heavily biased in favour of the public schools.

These people, who know little of how others live, make decisions based on their prejudices, as we all do, but the problem is that their understanding has little relevance to many ordinary people.

They have imposed an educational system that is constrained by a narrow academic curriculum with targets that are irrelevant to the needs of many children.

If we were producing a fair and educated society, we would not be seeing, for example, the increasing outbursts of violence against teachers.

In spite of Bernard's example, independent schools are reinforcing social inequality, not removing it.

If I were to hear that a public school had taken the young killer of 11-year-old Liverpool schoolboy Rhys Jones and attempted to teach him, I would be more impressed because that is what the great educators of the past like Don Bosco, Maria Montessori and Janusz Korczak did.