Bias and Ministers meddling with education do not add up

THE trouble with the 11-plus was that there were too many casualties and too many injustices resulting from it. For the period from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, it is possible to argue that such a “rough justice” system was right for the times because of the country’s delicate financial state, but today it would only look unfair.

A few years ago, I learned that £1 per day was spent on each grammar pupil in the 1950s, whereas only one tenth of that was spent on each secondary modern pupil. This fully accords with my own memories, for my classmates and I were very neglected educationally.

It matters, because those who attended grammar school were given a relatively smooth path in life compared to people like me who received a secondary modern education and consequently struggled.

On being told in 1959 that we were not to be allowed the chance of taking O-levels, I decided to leave school at the age of 15 with no qualifications – a decision that I now see was reckless, and yet so understandable given the situation I found myself in.

Today I am in touch with several of the men who were at my school and I secretly wonder why some of them were deemed to warrant a place in the grammar wing while I was not.

It seems that the age of 11 may have been a little too soon to judge me, but I see that Mr McNicholas (Yorkshire Post, April 8) dismisses such thoughts as simply having a chip on my shoulder.

If it was my weakness in mathematics that prevented me from passing either the 11-plus or the 13-plus then it supports the principle of the comprehensive school, which Mr McNicholas and so many others despise and denigrate.

I think it would have been the right solution for me.

From: Mrs R Hobbs, Shepley, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

I AM in full agreement with M Hellawell’s comments (Yorkshire Post, April 15), recognising that it is high time the Government ceased interfering with the job of teachers and let the professionals get on with it.

I have over 30 years experience of teaching children from the ages of four to 11 and have witnessed endless “new trends” and “new styles” of teaching, initiated by clueless Education Secretaries each wanting to make a name for themselves.

Good teachers know their pupils, use a variety of ways to help the children achieve their goals, and know how best to keep those children engaged in a learning environment.

I am appalled to learn that 
two of my six-year-old grandchildren, who live in different parts of the country, are both feeling the pressure of weekly written numeracy tests against the clock!

Both their schools are obviously having to put yet another “new initiative” from the Government into practice.

How sad, that five and six-year-old children all over the country are regularly being told they are failing in numeracy.

Well done, Mr Gove.