I’m writing in response to “Teachers cannot mend the crippled limbs of society. Sorry, Ofsted” (17 February). There is no “absence of the desire to learn” among the pupils I teach in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, but many are frustrated. Pupils have shown me nothing but a desire to learn and progress in higher education and skilled employment. The problems of motivation stem from a top-down exam culture built on profit, a lack of jobs and an undemocratic learning environment.

Richard McEwan

UCU Education Committee vice-chair and lecturer at Tower Hamlets College.