For how long will those who call the educational shots in this country continue to demonstrate their ineptitude?

First we had the extraordinary farce over A Level results, now there is talk of postponing next year’s public examinations until July.

Surely those undergoing full time secondary education have suffered enough during the 2019-2020 school year and do not deserve to be subject to an extension of the next one.

The same goes for the teachers who have striven against heavy odds to ensure the maintenance of the service which they provide.

Examinations, especially those upon which entry to the following stage of a young person’s education depends, are not necessarily so much a test of the mastery of the content of a syllabus as of the pupil’s or student’s potential for survival and success during the next stage.

This is what underpins, for example, the International Baccalaureate programmes, of which two of my children benefited, with their emphasis on learning how to learn and on lifelong learning.

The solution to the matter at issue is straightforward.

Adjust subject syllabuses to allow for the time lost during the previous school year and let the coat be cut according to the cloth available.

Please let us focus on the quality of education imparted in schools, not on its quantity.

David Bamford

Warwick Bridge

Carlisle