I am writing this letter as a catharsis of my rage. I read John Howson’s article about how graduates are turning their backs on teaching (TES, January 26) and today received further drivel from the Teacher Training Agency, namely “Platform Issue 3: Partnerships for training teachers and teachers for our future.” The TTA is really saying: “Become a teacher because it isn’t being done very well at the moment and you can raise the standards.” Haven’t the bureaucrats who are allegedly guiding education got the message yet?

I know of no teachers who would actively encourage their children or any other young adults, to enter teaching. Many colleagues are seeking to escape. I have witnessed the departure of many headteachers in recent years, mainly for stress-related reasons, and the staffroom grapevine is no longer producing many volunteers to fill their places.

Who would willingly enter a profession that is constantly castigated in the media for its failures? Its successes are treated with suspicion; it has been seriously destabilised by constant Government interference. It has been given control of its finances merely to take the blame for the Government’s failure to fund it adequately.

While schools juggle diminishing resources, the Government seems to be throwing money at glossy initiatives like the TTA, grant-maintained schools, the Office for Standards in Education, the national curriculum etc. Teachers are having to deal more and more with children who are damaged by a family life which has been slowly destroyed.

I would like to discover how much money the Government is currently spending on quangos. If the resources frittered away like this were to be spent in schools, how many more teachers would we be able to employ? Every move of the Government seems to be deliberately conspiring to alienate the teaching profession.

L J STINTON Headteacher Poolbrook Primary School Barnard’s Green Malvern, Worcestershire