Education failing our young people

THE recent report from the Department for Education (DfE) which revealed that pre-schoolers in Yorkshire are falling behind quite significantly, with Yorkshire children finishing bottom in maths, is certainly a cause for concern (Yorkshire Post, October 25).

This is even more so following the recent report by the OECD which found that England’s young people are near the bottom of a global league table for basic skills.

The evidence demonstrates that our education system is letting our young people down from their earliest years right through to when they leave school.

Improving educational standards in England is key to solving many of the problem which plague our country.

It is the key to creating a stronger economy and 
a fairer and more harmonious society.

Until education receives the priority it so desperately needs, we should not be surprised to see those nations which evidently value the futures of their young people more than we do race ahead of us.

Children in Yorkshire, and England as a whole, deserve so much better!

Law clear on Shoesmith

From: Ian Smith, Colston Close, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

MOST of us will agree with Professor Double that Sharon Shoesmith should not have a huge pay-out, if any (Yorkshire Post, November 2). But the Professor misunderstands the law, which requires any manager challenging an employee, to discuss issues with the latter giving him/her an opportunity to explain matters and defend their case. Employers know that they cannot sack someone without giving a right of reply, especially one who’s been employed for some time. Clearly, Ed Balls and his cronies were ignorant of that.

The bad taste Mr Balls mentioned in his statement should be unpalatable to himself, but he seems not to recognise that the decision to dismiss without interviewing Ms Shoesmith was his error.

He argues that he didn’t dismiss, he only removed her from the role of director of children’s services – on specialist advice.

So what did he expect Haringey Council to do? Really Mr Balls! Another politician blaming others for his own incompetence.

Professor Double should realise that this element of employment law is not a “strange quirk”. It’s been an essential protection for many years against the ill-considered whims of some managers and now, it appears, such people that we have in Parliament.

Public against the trolleybus

From: Doug Kemp, North West Leeds Transport Forum, West Park, Leeds.

IT was interesting to read your article (Yorkshire Post, November 2) in which the Federation of Small Businesses in West Yorkshire expressed their fears over the Leeds trolleybus project.

The loss of small businesses in West Park, Far Headingley and Headingley as a result of the changes imposed by the trolleybus is becoming recognised as yet another negative aspect of the scheme which will seriously damage local communities.

The original publicity material for the trolleybus proposal referred to a survey carried out in 2009 which showed that 77 per cent of people supported the introduction of a trolleybus-based scheme, although at the time this included an east route to St James’s Hospital and a City Centre loop, not just the currently proposed north and south routes.

Other information promised that the scheme would “help tackle congestion and reduce pollution in Leeds” and that “90 per cent of the funding for NGT would come from central Government and 10 per cent would come from local sources”.

Community associations in North West Leeds recently combined to distribute a new questionnaire, worded to replicate the 2009 survey, to gauge the reaction of residents to the scheme now being proposed. 3,450 questionnaires were distributed and 893 were returned.

Analysis shows that 95 per cent of people are opposed or strongly opposed to the trolley bus scheme, with only 3 per cent supporting it.

No survey can claim to be entirely representative but the drop from 77 per cent to three per cent suggests that now that the implications of the trolleybus proposal is beginning to be understood, the public response is becoming clear – they, just like local businesses, don’t want it.

Hanging on the telephone

From: LR Hirst, Northorpe Lane, Mirfield.

NOTHING changes. I totally agree with comments made by Norma Bartle of Cottingley and PM Fitzgerald of Northallerton (Yorkshire Post, October 15 and 22) about the service provided by BT.

The same type of service happened to myself over five years ago, nothing changes. So I decided to return to the old company that I started with when I first got a telephone over 50 years ago. I can say to the two disappointed people that I have had no problems since and advise them to try the same company. I was always taught what pays one pays another.