Education policy

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 20

Education policy

Sir, — The attack on the Minister of Education by Nancy Ross (April 3) is quite unjustified. He is one of the few Ministers in the Government who is to be congratulated for doing an excellent job. He has held the line against those who have half destroyed our education system to the point where genuine “educators,” as Nancy Ross calls them, are practically extinct. Teaching respect for the flag is to be commended if it is combined with a greater emphasis on history. Children need to know of the struggles by which democracy and the welfare State were finally achieved. These and other important parts of our heritage are under attack; the Johnson Report indicated that total destruction of academic education is the aim of the highly-placed education radicals — and it is natural that the subversive element in the community is alarmed at the idea of any revival of informed national and cultural pride. — Yours, etc., MARK D. SADLER. April 9, 1984.

Sir, — Whenever I think about the Education Department these days I am reminded of what C. S. Lewis said of one of his characters, a headmistress: “... the head’s friends saw that the head was no use as a head, so they got her made an inspector to interfere with other heads. And when they found that she was not much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.” Extract from a childrens’ fantasy? — Yours, etc., D. J. BAILEY. April 10, 1984.