I fail to understand why politicians of all persuasions constantly emphasise the number of failing schools in this country.
According to your figures (TES, June 2), 51 schools are failing to provide adequate education out of the 3,000 so far inspected.The failure figure represents 1.7 per cent, so our schools’ success rate must be 98.3 per cent.
Your report stated that there are another 10 schools in the pipeline to be classed as failing schools. This grand total would still only represent a 2 per cent failure rate.
The estimated number of all schools likely to fail is put at between 250 and 500, which again results in a figure of less than 2 per cent even using the highest failure figure.
Should not all of us involved in education celebrate this extremely high success rate given that we have to tolerate underfunding, large class sizes, etc.?
If all areas of commerce and industry worked on a 98 per cent efficiency rate, this country would not be in such economic straits.
SAM HOYLE
Lowton high school Newton Road Lowton, Warrington, Lancashire