Schools are not preparing young people for jobs | Letters

The education system should not just be about passing exams, writes David Selby. Plus a letter from Mara Musso

Two quotes in your article (Schools are ‘pipeline’ to joblessness for many people, says ex-Labour adviser, 21 May) struck a chord with me: “a joyless education system that focused too heavily on passing exams” and “the level of vitriol and hatred these young people used when talking about schools”.

I worked on the government’s Youth Opportunities Programme and Youth Training Scheme several years ago, and latterly on the Youth Offending Scheme as a volunteer for more than 20 years – and the quotes did not surprise me in the least. It was bad enough in secondary modern schools, where the majority of children took no exams at all. In the comprehensives and latterly in the academies, every effort is made to show off the school through its exam results, watched at a distance by those students with little or nothing to show for about 10 years of schooling.