Mary says the Prime Minister was 'silly' for wanting 50 per cent of pupils to go to university, but some of our competitors have already gone beyond this level. With the likes of China and India planning to produce millions of new graduates each year and other countries also aiming to increase the proportion of their population educated to university level, is it so silly to want to remain competitive?
Bill Rammell
Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education
London SW1P
If Mary Warnock's rant against the increasing democratisation of universities is a result of an elitist education, then I am rather glad I did not have one. I have no delusions about the challenges facing a modern university: to pursue first-class research, teach and enthuse an increasing number of students, and serve the community in which the university resides. To do this requires we recognise and fund universities so that they can be world class in all these roles.
David Stephens
Professor of education, University of Brighton
As a lecturer and teacher with more than 23 years' experience, I do not know a colleague who has not commented on the decline in university entry standards. Let there be no doubt about it: a grade A in 1989 does not equate to a grade A in 2006.
Patrick Murphy
(Senior lecturer, retired)
Matlock, Derbyshire
No one quarrels with Jim Knight, Schools Minister, when he states the obvious: 'Every single young person must have a good grasp of the basics' (News, last week). Unlike ministers, teachers have trained themselves to judge what education their individual pupils need and how to try to achieve it. But they are trammelled by curriculum control, league tables and remorseless inspection.
Michael Bassey
Newark, Nottinghamshire
Henry Porter welcomes the addition of happiness skills to the school syllabus (Comment, last week). Surely it would be more sensible to reform the education system that is causing so much of the unhappiness?
David Gribble
South Brent, Devon
