Your Borneo correspondent Martin Spicer is right to point out that the UK Government has always had a straightforward relationship with British schools overseas - “It has totally ignored them” (View from Here, July 3).

But unlike Mr Spicer, the Council of British International Schools does not want this blinkered approach to continue and is pleased that the Government has finally started to recognise that there are approximately 2,000 British schools around the world making a significant contribution to the UK in financial and academic terms - 55 per cent of graduates from Cobis schools in 2008 went on to university in the UK.

Up to this point, there has been no formal regulation of British schools abroad and, as a result, an increasingly wide range are identifying themselves as British.

Hundreds of schools that purport to be “British” do not belong to any reputable professional association, and many simply take advantage of the popularity of the British education brand.

The Government’s proposed inspection scheme will help parents make an informed decision about their children’s education.

Roger Fry, Chairman, Cobis.