Letter: Education for one and all

Roger Catchpole
Saturday 03 October 1998 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

MICHAEL McMAHON asserts that "selective education works". It is not clear how many secondary schools Mr McMahon has experienced but, as a former FE college principal with a large catchment area operating in the 1960s and 1970s, I was able to sample the output of a substantial number of secondary modern schools. It was our experience that many of these former pupils who had failed their local selection test had considerable under-developed potential and they had come to the college for a rescue operation. It was not rare for them to go on to university or complete an advanced technician training programme. We also helped our share of ex-grammar school misfits.

L K STREET

Nazeing, Essex

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in