Recruitment analyst John Howson made a barbed comment that “14 key politicians were educated north of the border in a different system from the one on which they decide policy” (“Not many points up north”, TES Magazine, April 3).

Wrong. He assumes that all schools in Scotland teach to the Scottish syllabus, which is not the case. Several of the fee-paying schools - such as that attended by Alistair Darling - choose to teach GCSEs, A-levels and so on.

Many MPs, having been educated in the private sector, are making decisions about an education system which they know nothing about. How can someone who has been sent to, say, Eton College, have any idea what it is like for a child to struggle against the odds to learn, study and achieve?

How does an MP, with such a privileged background, know what it is like to be in an inner-city, multinational, multi-lingual class? They don’t, yet they are so arrogant that they don’t bother to find out.

Fiona Saunders, Aberdeen, Scotland.