Sir – Two items in your latest edition highlight the appalling inequality extant in educational provision and outcomes in the county.
Firstly, the 15 highly selective private schools, of the 50 schools listed, have monopolised the 100 per cent pass rates; these students deserve congratulation; they have fulfilled the expectations of such success when they entered these schools.
Hidden in the figures for state schools are the many students who have striven, with their teachers, to convert expected Ds to Cs; these students deserve equal congratulation to those mentioned above.
Secondly, you report on councillor Mitchell’s [powerful attack on Government policy which switches funding from LEA control to academies, threatening provision not only for remaining state schools but also for other services.
For a staunch Tory leader of a staunch Tory council to berate the government in this way surely indicates some gross political error.
Councillor Mitchell has endured some considerable flak this year. In this case, he deserves our full support and encouragement.
Martin Sheldon, Oxford
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