Schools for scandal

Those such as Nigel Probert (Letters, June 17) who talk about "the failure of comprehensive schools" like grammar schools but say nothing about secondary modern schools. The problem with the old system was not so much selection at 11, but rather that after 11 no further selection was possible. I went to a grammar school, got my A levels and then a place at university, eventually becoming a university teacher. My cousin failed the 11-plus, went to a secondary modern, left at 16 and was apprenticed in a local firm. Through hard work he secured a part-time teaching post at a technical college, eventually became a full-time teacher and, after the changes of 1992, also ended up as a university lecturer. Which is the success story?

From the mid-1970s, the school system was starved of resources and teachers became demoralised. I saw this as a governor of the (successful) comprehensive school my children attended. Ten years ago, I warned in a letter to The Times Higher that the same would happen to universities. Nothing has caused me to change my mind. The consequences of lack of resources last for several generations.

The one thing successful students usually have in common is that their imagination was fired by an outstanding teacher. That is where effort should be concentrated, not on fiddling with Sats, GCSEs or even, dare one say, with the research assessment exercise.

David Thompson.
Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge