Labour failure

SO EDUCATION Secretary Ed Balls threatens to close six of our Plymouth schools – his grand plan being to force them to be turned into “academies” which is an initiative the Government has spent a lot of time and our money on forcing on a sceptical public and a reluctant profession. What he fails to point out is that whereas one in five schools nationally is 'failing', nearly one in three (26 out of 83) of their supposedly marvellous academies are also failing, so their performance is actually worse than conventional schools'.

Yet another pointless initiative from a Government which seems to think an easy, attention-grabbing soundbite will fool us into thinking they care about something other than keeping their own noses in the trough.

Enough of the smoke and mirrors; let's have a Government that actually provides the resources and lets the people who care about education – our teachers and parents – get on with solving the problems.

ROGER CREAGH-OSBORNE

Landulph, Saltash,