I do not think we can blame governments entirely for the state of literacy amongst 11-year-olds. Education begins long before primary school and the contribution of parents to their child's education is paramount. My daughter could read before she went to school and I hope that I had something to do with this. She certainly wasn't taught anywhere else. A government can reform education policy and teachers can teach it, but if parents are not interested or able to support their child's education, a teacher will be up against a barrier from the outset. Children pick up their parents' attitudes and we only have to look at certain areas of our society to see why so many children are failing to pick up the most basic skills. I do not feel that the Government should be completely let off, but parents have a major part to play, and using teachers or the Government as scapegoats can only go so far to explain the country's poor literacy rate. Elizabeth Camp, Glasgow

Children are not being taught the PRE - literary skills of copying, matching, rhyming, syllable recognition, phoneme awareness, ie "reading readiness" skills before formal reading begins. There are so many skills a child needs to acquire before he learns to actually read. My children only attended school for half a day until they were six and they were then so ready for formal schooling that they were soon at the same level, and higher, than those who lost a lot of their childhood fun time learning to "read". When I was working in Britain as a speech and language therapist so many children were referred to my clinic still developing their speech sounds and language skills, but already in school learning to read! Please let this Government get an educational advisor who understands child development. I haven't yet met one parent or teacher who agrees with this pressure to read early. I am now living in Dubai and the pressure on children following the British system is ridiculous - children are "failing" at four years old! Catherine Peters, Dubai

We have wasted years on theories and strategies for childhood literacy that fail and fail and fail. The long-proven approach of synthetic phonics has revolutionised Scottish schools, and it's past time that the educational establishment in this country recognised its responsibility to return to techniques that actually work, instead of defending the outdated "recognition" methods. Among other reasons, the number of prisoners in this country who are recidivist until taught basic literacy skills should be persuasive enough. Carolyn Ten Holter, Oxford

Although the select committee report may say something about the education reforms, it says far more about the parenting of today's children. It has been notable that a substantial percentage of children who have low reading ages advance quickly when the problem is addressed, implying that it was their environment not their lack of skill that had been defective. We must help parents in control of this early environment to develop parenting skills that may never have been passed down to them. Schools do not have sole responsibility for the education of children. Dr Alastair Lack, Salisbury

I have three children - now adults - who have been educated in the state school system. If I could have afforded it, I would have sent them to private schools. Over the past 20 years there has been a steady decline in the overall standard of education. The poor quality and motivation of young teachers is a major reason as is the under-funding of schools and facilities. The free-hand given to educational theorists who have forced their changes on a reluctant profession is also disastrous. The importance of educating our young people effectively cannot be over-stated. There is only one way to go and that is back to basics with well-trained, motivated and rewarded teachers whole-heartedly supported in matters such as discipline by both authorities and parents. Keith Downer, Kent

The National Literacy Strategy is too structured and takes the joy out of reading. It places excessive weight on the teaching textual conventions, which means that five-year-olds can define a "non-fiction text" or a "barcode" but seldom choose to curl up with a book in their free time. The strategy's approach to grammar and punctuation is undeniably admirable but utterly futile if an enthusiasm for reading and writing is not sought and maintained. We should train our children to explore books and language alongside their own feelings and imagination through increased emphasis on creativity, drama, poetry, music and storytelling. Instead of instructing their classes to write for a particular purpose/within a literary genre (as the NLS suggests), teachers should be much more flexible and allow those children that show willing to use their imaginations. Moreover, books should be celebrated in and outside the classroom. Helen Rogers, Bristol

Education isn't fashion. Yet good approaches are dropped and new ones come in as often as fashion changes. This cannot be good for our education system nor the children who deserve to succeed. For those of you who remember literacy resources that worked, such as SRA's Reading Labs, why are schools told by Literacy Consultants (as our local school was) to drop this in favour of something now proven not to work? Common sense needs to prevail. Just because a resource is old, does not meean it doesn't work. We need to give proven resources another chance. We need a new Literacy Strategy, we need it now, and we need it to look at all proven resources. Rob Ince, London

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