Letter: Explaining the league tables

Sir: I have not been able to get a copy of the report of the National Commission on Education and so I am only able to comment upon your summary remarks and those of other newspapers. Unless the reports are grossly misleading, there is a striking omission. There is nowhere any mention of the effect of a large private sector within education upon the whole.

Surely we can all see that a large and influential private sector will always lower the possibility of bringing any state education system up to the standard of that provided in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

Why is the problem of the social structure of education in Britain, so different from that of any other developed country, left out of all discussion? How can the Labour Party welcome such a document, which can be nothing less than advocacy of protection for the advantages of the rich? One look through your School Exam League Tables or the Oxford and Cambridge University entrants shows the magnitude of the real problem. Why hide from it?

Yours faithfuly,

R. J. P. WILLIAMS

Oxford