25 years ago I won a place at Cambridge to study Engineering, from a very good North Derbyshire grammar-turned -comprehensive school, which had a record of getting one or two Oxbridge entrants every year. I can honestly say that I never felt that I did fit in with my ex-public school peers. At a party where we freshers met our JCR committee, one of the asked me "Do you row? Do you sing? Do you play an instrument?" When I answered no to all of the above, she said in her beautiful Home Counties accent "Goodness me, what sort of people is Newnham letting in these days?" Although it was a wonderful place to be, it is still just another university, and my degree has led me to a position in industry that is no higher than many other capable graduates from many other universities. I would rather my own children went on from their state schools to get well-regarded degrees from less elitist universities.

Sue Fairhurst, Belper,

As a former Grammar school boy who went on to Oxbridge, I am a natural supporter of state education. However I was not prepared for the kind of discussions I ended up having with my two daughters who attended the local comprehensive, one of the best schools in the area. Far from feeling that a university education was something they should naturally aspire to, over a few critical years I found myself having to debate with them the merits of university vs. leaving school at 18 and getting a job. Eventually, I am pleased to say, both went on to university. One even applied to Cambridge. However, in spite of achieving top grades in all subjects, she didn't get in and I am convinced the reason is that her heart was just not in it. Somehow the atmosphere at the school, coupled with peer pressure, made her feel that she might not fit in. I can only salute the work done by Sir Peter Lampi and the Sutton trust. There is a serious job to be done here. It's no use blaming Oxbridge.

Mark, Bath, England

As a teacher I have seen a sad phenomenon again and again: working class parents in such a depressing rut that they sabotage their children's education and aspirations - lest they be outstripped by their offspring. This is not helped that our national psyche does not embrace a culture of acheivement. Just look at the treatment that extraordinary individuals - sports men and women, business and political leaders - get from the media. We need to work on improving parents' attitudes towards education and acheivement, and giving them more confidence so they don't fear their children's potential.

To the 'particularist' Guesedworker: who is 'our own'? Who are you discriminating for? The Angles? The Saxons? Our German monarch? And what makes you assume that people being raised are not part of 'our own'? If you are a true particularist, surely we should each be looking out for Number One alone? And in a growing economy, resource allocation is not a zero sum game.

SJ, London,

I was the first in my family to go to Cambridge (1955) alhough my aunt had a degree in pharmaceuticals (1930). No one else had ever gone to Unversity There must be hundreds of thousands like me. I have never really understood why the grammar schools were amost abolished in the name of equality. To be successul, a nation must encourage intelligent young people from all walks of life to study happily. I thought the grammar schools did this passably well. To grind us all down to the level of the underclass is hardly sensible as it give those with money from the past tthe ability to hold on to privilege because no new blood emerges to challeges them

Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines

Surely the great problem is that the vast majority of modern teachers advise on the principle that they themselves have not he confidence, to advise "Russell " group universities, knowing that a generation previously they would been unhappy.

DAVID VINTER, Louth, Lincs. , UK

Your last point says it all: "Why not open up leading private and state schools to those from nonprivileged backgrounds...?" Independent schools would love to but they cannot afford it. The solution is for the government to pay for kids to go to independent schools but they won't because they want to retain control. Nor do they understand - or pretend not to even though enough of the government use them - why independent schools work. They talk only in terms of money but the average independent school costs no more to run than the average state school but they spend just 10% on admin while state schools spend 40%. The real reason for their success is selection, discipline and no government interference. They can take only those who will work, accept discipline and who will do well, and firm discipline is supported by parents. There are even special schools for problem kids who no-one wants so the solution is to end the war and make all schools independent not the other way round.

R Mason, London, UK

I am curious as to why you seem to feel that the yardstick for developing our most talented children lies with Oxbridge?

Our country needs new thinkers and academics, but it also needs more brilliant engineers, scientists and teachers. I wish for a day when our country develops our children's skills to the top level through apprenticeships and on the job training as well as just via Oxbridge.

John, Bournemouth,

Peter Lampl says " we should learn from succesful schools"; but the Labour party wants to destroy the most succesful schools, ie. grammar and selectives, thereby ensuring a second - rate education for all.

Ann, Stanmore, London

As a non-British reader/commentattor I would like to add that England was the place where Karl Marx completed his ideas of the class and class wars. For some reason he also was thinking that the German workers would be more fit to lead the revolutuion. But for an European UK is, or was a time ago, the place where some kind of class conciousness is alive and well, more so than on the continent. Some comparative investigatiob might serve to explain the reasons of that situation. It is a thing a traveller feels.

P J Jarvinen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Many independent schools are raising funds to provide means tested places.However the cost of an endowment fund for one place can be £500,000 to £750,000. Given the billions of pounds spent trying to improve state schools why not bring back the assisted places scheme at least until we have decent state schools.

Martin Husbands, Monmouth, Wales

In my school, the emphasis was always on academic achievement, but yet we were never given any guidance on what to do with grades once we got them. I got very good grades with a lot of study, but my career guidance teacher ruled out any traditional professions for me like doctor, lawyer, architect because my grades weren't straight A's. As a result, I did arts in college and wafted my way into various jobs, always knowing that I was just as good as the people above me, but yet I didn't have the academic qualifications. I also changed schools when I was younger, and most likely would not have gone to college if I had stayed in the first one. I was the first person in my family to go to college as well, and felt ashamed that I didn't think it was a big deal. Now I feel even more ashamed that I didn't pick a better course.

miriam, dublin, ireland

Unfortunately it is not all about class, it is also the qualtiy of the education system. I am the father of a very bright junior school child. As success in teaching appears to be about getting all children to a mdian point, bright children, such as my son, are rarely encouraged to meet their potential in early education. When they contribute information outside the teachers knowledge it is resented, when they extend a discussion with thoughtful insight they are told to shut up. This treatment does curtail aspirations, not to mention demoralises the child and destroys self-confidence. I know, having seen it first hand!!

As a consequence we have enrolled him in a private school, where we hope he will not only achieve academically, but be happy, surrounded by a group of similar peers. To a working man like myself the cost of this is significant. If my son goes to Oxbridge or any other university (as I did not) that's great. I just want him to be happy and to have had the opportunity.

Michael, Cheshire, UK

I remember Cheltenham Grammar in the 1970's as being no slouch on the sports field or the concert platform either. Yet at the same time they were also happy with those of us who didn't particularly want to be fully rounded individuals, who were happy with geekdom.

The natural impulse of politicians is to investigate, dissect, and artificially reproduce such centres all around the country. Murphy's Law, of course, insists that all such attempts will be doomed. Whatever it is these places have, it's a natural spark. Sadly.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswwade, UK

Sir Peter is of course right: raising aspirations among all young people is critically important. However, it is only part of the solution. The present tuition fee and debt regime works hugely to the advantage of the better-off. For a host of reasons they are far more likely to get well-paid graduate jobs, and through golden hellos, generous annual increments and bonuses, and parental help, they will be able to repay their student debts in a few years. In contrast, those from humbler backgrounds, mostly attending universities which are not targeted by major employers, will be penalised for decades by the requirement to repay their student loans from more modest earnings. If we cannot abolish graduate contributions to the cost of their education, then these should be through a graduate tax, whereby high-earning graduates will automatically pay more, and those less fortunate will pay less. That's fair, and would make university education a more attractive option to everyone.

Lawrence Lockhart, Bath, UK

Aspirations have always been based on class or money. Independent schools and confidence do not necessarily mean brain power I grew up in the UK and have lived in north America for more than forty years I would bet my money on the UK ON BRAIN POWER ANYDAY

mike elbourne, Victoria.BC, Canada

Why is the concern so focused on Oxbridge. It is not the only university. Just because children from less privileged schools do not aim for Oxbridge does not mean that they do not go on to other universities and gain good jobs.

Joe Bloggs, Manchester,

As it is the talented children you want to reach, then aim for them directly. Bypass poor teachers and disinterested parents. This might be done through television, though not the poor dumbed down product we see today. Talented youngsters might have been turned on by Sagan or Magee in the 1970/80s. What do they have now? So better programmes, backed up by direct appeals after such programmes might be the way to go. "Interested in relativity theory, forget Redbrick Poly. and come to Oxbridge." Also, leaflet the libraries. maybe place bookmarks in serious popular books by Einstein, Heisenberg and the like. "Understand this? Understand more. Forget the local third rate university. Come to Oxbridge. It's not just for snobs, as your teachers or parents might suggest. It's for Newton, Rutherford... They didn't go to Armpit University, they went to Oxbridge, and so might you. Getting As in science? Email us..."

Mal, Milton Keynes,

What happens to graduates who happen to be working-class?

What evidence is there that employers discriminate against them in favour of equally or less well-qualified graduates of middle-class origin, perhaps out of a subconscious aversion to hiring social climbers from among the riff-raff?

Michael Petek, Brighton, UK

I'd put it to Sir Peter that the best way to encourage the best use of our nation's talent is not to try to seduce more of the lower orders into becoming high-earning "success" stories, but to discourage society in general, and the elite in particular, from looking at life as being fundamentally about taking whatever path leads to the maximisation of ones ability to consume.

By all means do everything possible to promote personal development, but do this in a way that encourages the newly-developed to view their ability as the opening up of an opportunity to do something productive for society, and not just a pass-key to a privileged position at the trough. There are far too many people, at all income levels, who are rewarded with abilities to consume that are far in excess of any reasonable estimate of their contribution to society. Sir Peter may believe that it is just an unfortunate by-product of a basically sound system. There are many of us who would disagree.

Simon Stephenson, Windermere, UK

The Sutton trust Research on university admission is flawed.There is a highly questionable value judgement in its assumption that only 13 universities represent aspiration.The researchers by their model see an application to read theology at Durham as aspirational but not one to read medicine at Southampton or Cardiff.I have every sympathy with the aims of the Trust but such flawed research does not help their cause

BSindall, Axminster, U.K

Children would have a head start if they were taught not only the three Rs,but also how to eat at table, how to speak clearly, how to stand and sit and enter a room, how to say a few pleasant words to people they do not know, but meet in a social or work atmosphere. Sound like finishing school? Or national service? Actually it should be beginning school. What a difference it would make to so many children, hindered from so much by lack of 'savoir faire'.

helen, Norwich,

I was born in India to a well to do but not a very affluent family, however both parents were highly educated and believed in only 1 thing, hard work! no matter what I did in my life I was expected to go to the top. I believe this has been an cultural thing, where there was only one way out of the mediocrity, through sheer hard work and education. We in India treat education like its one of the basic necessities of life. There are people I knew, who used to go hungry so that their children go to school. There is a section of English populace which is growing up in an environment where they do not see education as a way out of their present status in society.

PM, Bristol,

I actually think a lot of adults almost expect young people to be lazy, sponging, etc. and they do not push them to do well. I wish I had a quid for all the mums I know who moan about their useless adult children but keep subsidising them and playing the role of "parent of teenager" even when their kid is 25. It's astonishing. Perhaps from the vantage point of their dull lives many adults look back on their teenage irresponsibiity and stupidity as a kind of paradise and don't want to deprive their children of it and force them to take dull jobs like they themselves are having to do. It's sad but it's a cultural thing and it will take a lot to shake it.

ja, London,

My question to Lampi is: Who is the "we" you speak of? Which is the collective group your universalist goal is designed to benefit?

And it's not good enough to answer airily, "the economy" ... or "the country". Which country? That of my forefathers to which I would feign return? That of a non-collective of self-interested abstract individuals, into which England's true people are pressed as their rights to this land are overturned? That of the competing peoples whom universalists like you have brought here?

Universalism is anti-particularist by definition, and perfectly fails to engage with the nature of Man. In a land divided, if you raise out-group members you do not aid all. You aid the out-group - and do so in a game - land and resource competition - which is classically zero-sum.

We English have suffered enough over the last sixty years from airy universalism. Let us be realistic at last. Let us particularise. Let us discriminate for our own, for no others ever will.

Guessedworker, Lewes, England

It is extremely sad that many intelligent, 'lower class' young people must worry that thoughts of higher education might brand them as 'class traitior'. Sadder still if teachers do not encourage these youths to go. Sad again that modern England must still contend with 'class'. Thanks (or whatever)to technology, there are fewer and fewer jobs for the unskilled, so why not train for a new world? The truly intelligent will break out!

will knutsen, farstrup, denmark

Interesting, another columnist says she'd rather have her children happy than achieve academically - and a man says that there is a lack of ambition in the UK when it comes to education. I wonder what that says?

Tina, Duesseldorf, Germany

You are so right. I was denied Oxbridge through lack of information and social categorising ( Snobbery) .

A young man I have coached, has been told not to consider Oxbridge by his school. He has not listened to his teachers and is making enquiries on his own behalf. I , and others , have encouraged him in this. It has never been about his ability, but about the lack of ambition in his first school, followed with an assumption that the damage has been done, by his current school. This lack of challenge and aspiration means that he has to learn to work harder than he has been used to. He has been a big fish in a very small pond. Now he is in a medium sized pond and they do not think that he can graduate to the large pond.

We shall see.

Corin Keiler- Lloyd, Wolverhampton,