Political pygmies miss chance for an education revolution

From: Wayne Chadburn, Thurlstone Road, Penistone, Sheffield.

“DEVOLUTION” bids from various parts of the Yorkshire region have now been submitted for consideration. Effectively power-hungry and mainly, but not exclusively, Labour council leaders are aiming to finish the job started in the 1970s and rip the proud and historic entity of Yorkshire apart. For their lack of strategic vision, lack of ambition, lack of consultation with the general public and sheer willingness to sell this county down the river for their thirty pieces of silver from the Chancellor they should be roundly condemned and suffer at the ballot box.

However one particular aspect is missing from each of the Yorkshire bids and these pygmies of politicians should hang their heads in shame as a result. There is no mention of bidding to take over education in any bid. At a time when Yorkshire schools are again at the bottom of the GCSE performance league tables, different thinking is needed on how to re-vitalise our schools. It is through the education of our young people that the future prosperity of our region lies and it is clear our council leaders are more than happy to keep with the failing status quo.

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Of course, there is a very good reason they’ve not done this. They realise that for us to change education for the better we need a regional and not localised solution. This would be tantamount to them accepting their fragmented devolution approach is substandard in comparison to a regional approach. There is a ready-made example of how a regional solution to education can transform schools. Twenty years ago, London was in the same position Yorkshire is now – bottom of the education league. In the last decade they instigated a London Challenge. Now London leads the English educational league tables.

It is time our council leaders realised their power-grab will do nothing for our future generations. It is time for a regional solution – it is time for a Yorkshire Challenge.

From: Nat Wendel, Hull.

LIBERAL Democrats have a nerve, don’t they (The Yorkshire Post, September 18)? Let’s not forget it was the Liberal Democrats in Government who oversaw the scrapping of the one Yorkshire body that was responsible for economic development in our region: Yorkshire Forward.

Most will agree that the Liberal Democrats no longer have any credibility when it comes to telling us what Yorkshire wants.