SIR: While claiming to extend parental choice, the Government are proposing that, together with the establishment of more grammar schools, all schools should have greater freedom to select pupils.

If implemented, then parents will be faced with a return to well-funded education for a selected elite at the expense of the majority of pupils. Already in areas where schools are beginning to use selection to compete for the most able pupils, many parents are concerned that they will not find places available at their preferred local school - a mockery of parental preference and choice.

In place of these reactionary proposals, our parents and children look forward to the election of a Labour government, which will recognise the need for a true partnership between Central Government, local education authorities, schools and parents. We look forward to local education authorities having the means to ensure that all schools are equally resourced and supported, so parents will not be drawn into a competition for places in a few favoured schools.

In this way, real progress will be made towards an education system which offers equality of access and opportunity to all pupils.

Cllr R Evans, Crescent Avenue, Over Hulton, Bolton.

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