THE recent GCSE results reveal a worsening north-south divide. In London, 28 per cent of exams were graded 7-9, compared with 17 per cent in north-east England. A-levels results showed a similar pattern.

Two years ago, the Schools Recovery Tsar, charged with drafting a post-Covid catch-up strategy, delivered his recommendations. Only nine per cent of these were implemented – the equivalent of £22 per primary school pupil. By contrast, the USA invested £1,600 and the Netherlands £2,500 a head.

Since 2010, British schools have been so poorly funded that we have sunk to 29th place out of 34 in the European table of education spending in relation to GDP.

This puts us behind Greece, Bulgaria and Albania. This deliberate policy has a disproportionate effect on less advantaged areas of the country, and has hit us hard in the North.

The 'levelling-up strategy' of the Johnson era quickly withered away with all his other overblown promises, and the Sunak government shows no interest in compensating for the regional divide.

Our cleverest children can't find graduate jobs here, so they leave for the south, making the problem worse.

While our competitor countries in Western Europe have coordinated economic, social and educational strategies to support their regions, Tory dogma opposes this.

As a result, the north gets poorer while the south gets richer. This is no way to run a country!

Dr Peter Williams,

Newbiggin,

Malton

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Surely farmers know best?

NORTH Yorkshire Council is to spend huge sums of money on engaging specialists to advise on eco-diversity, which translates to paying large salaries to people with many letters after their name.

It would be a lot cheaper, plus being far more productive, to create a forum of retired farmers who have lived and worked in the countryside all their working lives.

Their combined practical experience far outweighing unproven theories promoted by academics.

Peter Rickaby,

West Park,

Selby,

North Yorkshire