LETTER : Comprehensives work when the teachers are up to it

THE PERPETUAL sniping at the comprehensive education system by the beneficiaries, and therefore supporters, of the much discredited selective system it replaced encapsulates the social divisions that are fundamental to British decline.

The comprehensive system motivates increasing numbers of our children to strive for and achieve degrees from our established and newly found universities. The parents of many of these children never had the opportunity of a higher education. The growth in universities will encourage this further.

The inability of the British to identify future direction and to move forward with determination and conviction without constantly looking back to past glories or seeking to perpetuate class-dividing anachronisms like selective education is central to our attitudes over Europe and our continued decline.

Certainly the comprehensive system needs to evolve to meet the changing needs of the British economy, but turn the clock back to Edward VI? Never!

Richard M Leveton

Crawley Down, West Sussex