Sunak needs to learn our children’s education is best left to professionals

It is becoming all too clear, to me at least, that education appears to be best understood by those who actually teach. Yet poor old teachers are being usurped by the government, children’s charities and lobbyists all the time.

Gillian Keegan, secretary of state for education, must be inundated with advice and guidance on how to educate children from all and sundry. But is she listening to the people that really matter: teachers?

I know, from 30 years of experience, that all levels of teaching staff are professional, focused and want their charges to achieve their dreams.

It’s the same in many other professions, whether that be the NHS, care services, or the police force. Yet in each sector, the level of interference is amazing. The time has come to hear and adopt the profession’s needs and aims for the future, and not countenance the whining of groups of people with inflated whims that will pass their sell-by-date before the sun sets.

Teachers and those in the profession know best how to educate children and at what age they can process the certain information that is offered. Both parents and lobbyists ought to resist interfering in children’s schooling.

Education is best left to those with a vested interest in children’s welfare and should not be influenced by the passing whims of those outside the teaching profession.

History shows that our education standards are higher when compared to other countries. Moreover, our universities are the envy of the world, with British university students much sought after in all walks of life.

Ministers and governments come and go within a few years, but the teachers who educate our children often dedicate themselves to life-long careers, committed to helping each generation.

So in response to recent plans, I say: leave teaching to the professionals.

Keith Poole

Basingstoke

Food bank charity the Trussell Trust has just announced that it distributed a record 3.1 million food parcels last year.

This news comes two days after Rishi Sunak re-stated his promise to increase defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP – £87.1bn – by 2030, should he retain office at the next general election. Keir Starmer has previously promised to match that figure “as soon as resources allow” if he becomes the next PM.

It’s reassuring to know that these charities, on which so many UK citizens now depend, will be safe from the covetous clutches of the “axis of authoritarian states” identified as Russia, China and North Korea.

The UK will have the best-defended food banks in the whole world.

Sasha Simic

London

The more we learn about the fascinating lives of insects, the clearer it is that we shouldn’t be eating them. Recent calls to incorporate insects into processed food are frankly distressing.

As with all animals, there’s simply no need to breed, farm and kill insects when we can get all the nutrients we need from eating vegan. Anyone looking to up their protein intake need only open their kitchen cupboards; they’re likely already packed full of high-protein foods like pulses, nuts, and legumes, which are kinder to animals and better for the planet and our health, too!

It’s time we dropped the obsession with eating other animals. I, for one, hope never to see locust loaves on the shelves.

Lucy Watson

London

Alastair Campbell’s recent article regarding suicidal thoughts really resonated with me, as I’m sure it did with many others. Often we here in the UK adhere to a certain “stiff upper-lippedness” when it comes to questions of mental health, preferring to suffer in silence rather than risking being perceived as fussy, or even weak.

After years of economic strife, news of escalating tensions abroad, and a pandemic which kept many of us confined to our homes for over a year, the last thing any of us need is to be left alone.

Stephen Bloom

Canterbury