21 MARCH 1969, Page 34

Fighting back

Sir: Stuart Maclure's article (14 March) does less than justice to the 'Black Paper' on edu- cation.

The facts that many secondary school heads are anxious about the end-products they are re- ceiving from the primary schools; and that the vice-chancellors of twenty-five of our forty universities have stated in a letter to The Times that some of the plans for secondary re- organisation may be leading to a denial of opportunities for pupils of ability, which may in turn have serious results for the universities, are warning signals that something may be wrong. It would surely be foolish to ignore the message of the Paper's authors that much deeper research is necessary into the effects of some of the more modern methods of teaching the young.