I HAVE never said that I am jealous of the teaching profession as Mr JS Ashley, Redbridge Community School (Letters, December 1) states.

I am though extremely angry at their feeble justifications for strike action, considering there are many professions who could be singled out for preferential treatment.

I understand from the many replies to my letter that this has caused some offence. I will concede that there are a number of very good teachers who enter the profession in a vocational way and give it their all. On the other hand our children have been let down very badly by inadequate teachers that the unions have prevented from getting their well deserved marching orders.

The style of teaching, which prefers to promote a Liberal ideology rather than concentrate on that which will serve them well in later life, has been an appalling waste of children’s talents.

In short exams have been dumbed down and children have been shoved off to universities to manipulate the figures of unemployment. On top of that they have taken up courses that industry neither wants or needs leaving our children poorly let down.

What Michael Gove is doing is admirable and deserves the backing of all, for at last we have someone with an ounce of common sense who actually takes teaching seriously.

I would also like to add that on leaving school I left with very little, if nothing, in the way of academic qualifications. This had nothing to do with my ability to learn because I am a darn sight more educated and clever than possibly some of those that profess to be educators, simply because I made the effort to teach myself.

The irony here is that I was taught at Redbridge when it was a secondary modern school, where the majority of staff failed to hold my attention, left me bored and frustrated and when I eventually left it was with an overwhelming feeling of inadequacy.

So no, I would never want to be a teacher, simply because I would not last five minutes because I might teach them how to be competitive, teach to the highest level of comprehension in the class. I might teach them it’s all right to be patriotic and proud of their country and its history and achievements, and I might tell them there is absolutely nothing wrong with being white and Christian.

SE IRELAND, Maybush, Southampton