Michael Gove wants us to learn the real lesson of Sputnik and win the education space race (“Pisa slip should put a rocket under our aspirations”, December 17). His analogy fails to recognise that the end-product of that Sputnik-inspired race was arriving at a lifeless, barren, inhospitable moon. Too great an emphasis on test data might successfully lead us to an equal sterile destination.

Professor Colin Richards, Spark Bridge, Cumbria

Michael Gove’s opening sentence really did set out his stall remarkably well: “Some people are taking the Pisa...” Coming from a politician, that really does takes the... biscuit, although another term springs readily to mind.

Tim Peskett, Northampton.