I was rather puzzled by Munira Mirza’s article (“Let’s bring London into a golden age”, Comment, 19 October) on the Mayor of London’s Education Inquiry report. Just like David Cameron’s curious reaction to Team GB’s incredible Olympic success, London’s schools were berated even after CentreForum’s London Schooling: lessons from the capital report had concluded that they are “achieving better than expected results at most ages and levels of attainment”.

Curiously, Ms Mirza seems to criticise approaches such as “learning to learn”, suggesting instead the teaching of “valuable knowledge” such as the Thames Barrier. Curiously, too, when a school encourages a student to pursue a vocational rather than an academic route, this is them “ducking their responsibility” of teaching a broad and balanced curriculum in preference for valueless GCSE “equivalencies”.

These are curious times. As one politician derides local councils for micromanaging schools, another (Boris Johnson) decides to create a new local education “unit” (authority) of his very own, to challenge underperformance even more “assertively”.

Ian Abbott, Advisory teacher for dyslexia-specific learning difficulties.