IN ‘Academy status for good of the pupils’ (Mailbag, February 1), Robin Tones highlights the difference between those against conversion to academies and those of us who are for it.
Those against comprise the leaders of the teaching unions, the education establishment, and certain Labour controlled local authorities.
The one thing they have in common is that in their arguments they hardly ever mention the education of pupils or how to remedy the dreadful state our education system is in.
The teaching unions are solely interested in maintaining their membership, collective bargaining and a system run for them.
The education establishment wants a system that masks their failings, ‘dumbs down’ examinations to give inflated and misleading results, writes off pupils as ‘no-hopers’ and consigns them to the dole queue, and tolerates incompetent teachers who fail pupils and make teaching more difficult for good colleagues.
The likes of Kirklees education authority, way down the list in the country, want to maintain central control, distribute funds as they see fit, impose unnecessary and often ridiculous health and safety rules, introduce restrictive political correct practices, and overrule heads of schools’ decisions; the ‘dead hand’ of which conspires to hinder the education of pupils.
Contrast this with what the Education Secretary and those of us who support his academy programme, wish to bring to pass.
Robin Tones’ objective, which I fully support, is the best in education for our children. Over the last 13 years we have seen the UK drop from seventh in the world education league to 27th, and this clearly cannot go on.
The education system is betraying our children and something must be done to revise this trend.
The Indian sub continent, the Middle and Far East countries are beginning to leave us behind in the education stakes.
If we are to compete in ever challenging markets then we have to catch up and fast.
The focus in education has no longer to be just ‘an all round one’ and master of none, but on excellent, meaningful qualification, enthusiasm and achievement.
Every pupil deserves a chance and should have the teachers and facilities for it.
Discipline, rigorous in examinations, teachers forced to passionately import their knowledge and experience, resources targeted where judged to be required; these all seem to be possible within the academy programme.
I am not so naive, and I’m sure neither is Robin Tones, as to think it is the remedy to all that is wrong with the current education system, but it is a long overdue start.
The academy programme puts pupils and their education first and foremost.
Let us hope and pray for their futures, and the country’s sake, it makes a difference.
DEMOCRAT
Lindley
The real villains
THE picture illustrating pavement parking (Examiner, January 26) didn’t show the real villains.
A real pavement parker practically blocks all of the pavement, so that nursery staff bringing their small charges back from their walk, very sensibly edge though the small gap between the van and the wall, the tallest, firmly clutching the children’s hands, having to duck to get beneath the driver’s wing mirror, to safely make their way back to the nursery.
In the instance I saw, a young woman with a young child in a push chair conceded defeat and made her way round the van walking in the road, with her back to the traffic, to get to the nursery.
The drivers that bewilder me are those who automatically park with two wheels just on the kerb. I even noticed Gareth Malone do it, without thinking, on the very enjoyable TV series about the military wives’ choir.
Meanwhile we can but watch our lovely stone kerbs disintegrating!
PENSIONER
Dalton
Crime prevention
THIS weekend Town were at home and, as usual, hundreds if not thousands of fans had extreme difficulty parking anywhere near the Galpharm Stadium.
They are competing for space with cinema-goers, pool and gym users, and Pizza Hut and Rope Walk customers.
It's no surprise, then, that some will park on pavements. Crime ‘prevention’ here would be to provide a great deal more parking spaces in the area.
Shaun Dundon
Almondbury
Signs of the times
REGARDING car parking fines, some motorists appear to be unable to read signs in car parks while static. How on earth do they read signs while travelling on the roads at high speeds? Should they be allowed on the road?
Brian Horton
Berry Brow
Parish ‘democracy’
CLR Andrew Cooper’s letter about Kirkburton Parish Council (February 2) reinforces many of the doubts which for some time now I’ve had about parish councils in general.
Do these bodies offer us value for money? This is a valid question at a time of recession and general tightening of belts, and, speaking for Honley, the answer is unequivocally no.
We are served quite efficiently by three (shared) Kirklees councillors – why then do we need six parish councillors?
Of those six, I have only ever seen one (Peter Searby) and I can’t recall being asked to vote for any of the other names. Perhaps this is because three of them are in fact co-opted rather than elected. Not terribly democratic is it?
Personally I’d be only too happy to see this body dissolved, and the money saved spent on ensuring the future of our library.
As Monty Python might have said ‘What has the parish council ever done for us?’
Di Coldwell
Honley
Up hill, down dale
THE hills of Huddersfield will test any battery-driven car to its limits. Clearly more power will be needed to get the car to the top of, say, Cowcliffe Hill Road than to motor around the level roads of York.
Batteries, and their construction, have not developed significantly for the last 50 years other than becoming more compact. They still work on the same basic chemical principles. Until a better way of storing electricity can be found, then battery operated cars will not be viable.
Batteries have a tendency to develop a ‘memory’ when being charged. Anyone who has a battery operated drill will know this. If a battery has 30% of its charge remaining, and the battery is put on recharge, then the battery will remember that it only needs 70% charge even though it may be fully discharged and require a 100% charge in future.
There are few charging points around Great Britain so, if you made a journey to Scotland you would have to charge the car at a point when the battery is not fully discharged and this may reduce the holding capacity of the battery for future use.
A point worth remembering is that you do not ruin a battery by taking too much out of it, you ruin a battery by putting too much into it, or overcharging.
A bit like my gas provider.
Garry Coupland
Longwood
Playing fair?
CONGRATULATIONS to Barry Gibson and Bill Armer for pointing out how Kirklees Council are not playing fair with the public by unexpectedly bringing ratification of the Local Development Framework forward by three months (article in Tuesday’s Examiner). However, what the article doesn’t highlight is that the council seem very reluctant to let anyone see the revised LDF or know what they are intending to do at the extraordinary council meeting on March 6, until seven days before the event.
In our view, seven days is not enough time, for councillors or the public, to give due consideration and respond to something that is critically important to the vast majority of people in Kirklees.
The question is “why are they doing this?” Could it be that reports of Machiavelli’s death are greatly exaggerated?
Barry’s article also doesn’t say that the Council seem determined to approve the LDF before the revised new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is published and implemented by the Government later this month or early next.
It seems extraordinary that the council want to push ahead with the LDF when they don’t even know what the government’s ground rules in the NPPF are. In particular they don’t know what needs to be included in the LDF to implement Neighbourhood Planning across Kirklees.
Perhaps the clue comes in the fact that Neighbourhood Planning is intended to give local communities a much greater say on planning matters.
Isn’t it about time that our council started to play fair with the public?
Robert Bamforth
Spokesman for Kirklees Community Action Network
