No wonder home-schooling is on the up.

C. Hunt, Glasgow, UK,

This seems to be a scheme to ensure that the pass rate will continue to rise until it reaches 100%. It is completely meaningless except to those who are politically correct and not realise what the real world is.

I, like Michael Macauley took the sholarship (as it was known in the 1940's) and went to a good Grammar School. The boy round the corner went to the Central School at the end af the road, became an apprentice at STC and ended up as Chief Cable Engineer making a much better living than me, but so what, we both enjoyed our lives

David Fellows, Crowborough, England

When the goverment brought in class teaching of phonics, they ditched hearing every child read every day. Its not suprising reading standards have gone down.

jane c, mk, england

As long as this cures an education system that is guilty of letting almost a 1/3rd of white working class children from leaving primary school illiterate then I am all for it. If you don't believe the figure is that high go and teach at any comprehensive school for one day where that intake is working class and you will see. As a supply teacher I see it time and time again and because of this illiteracy they then disturb the class which affects another 50% of the class from learning. These chilidren are not given the learning support hours they need either, it is criminal.

S Purcell, London,

I believe that the ability to communicate in one language effectively is much more valuable than a partial knowledge of a second language. There are plenty of opportunities to acquire a second language later in, or even after, the formal education years.

The arguments that learning is easier when younger or total language immersion works wonders are true but apply equally to a first language.

Communication in any language includes reading, writing and speaking and this appears to be sadly lacking in some children leaving school.

Leave the mandarin, pashtu and arabic for those with a natural ability and aptitude for languages - everyone else should use the time and energy to acquire full competence in our national language - English

R Bingham, Lauzun, France

What has happened with education over the past 40 years is that the standards of achievement by our children have consistently been lowered, by educationalists who are too lazy to maintain rigorous standards for the pupil and the teacher. Money and parents are mixed in there somewhere. Education in Britain, like the curates egg, is good in small parts, the private parts.
The educational authorities today are more concerned with the reputations of their schools and teachers than with the true education and well-being of pupils. But by deliberately dropping academic standards history will show them to have sold our children's birthright for their own cheap ideals, inflated self-importance and political correctness.

Bob, Rawdon,

If children can read fluently, do long division, and write a story of a few hundred words then we can say that their primary education has been a success.
These objectives should not take vast amounts of school time. Provided they are achieved, the headmaster and teachers should have a completely free hand to teach the subjects they feel are important, or which they enjoy teaching. That's a recipe for confident, professional teachers, and happy, well-behaved, interested children.

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to devise a simple pencil and paper test to see if leavers have mastered the four rules of arithmetic and can write a story.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Ed Balls knows nothing about teaching young children and should not meddle in something so important. What value has Urdu in the international arena. Typical New Labour rubbish.Morris Ox's 'clowns' comment is too polite.

R.Crockett, London,

It would be better if Ed Balls would take a long rest after abolishing all the present curriculum regulations. The profession could then get on with the real job of educating our children. What we need at the end of primary school is for our children to have a love of learning, sound basic skills gained from the sheer enjoyment those skills bring them and an ability to carry out independent study.

That way our secondary schools will have the foundation for life long learning that they need to get the very best from each child.

Roger Parkes, Tunbridge Wells,

So now we have GCSE and A Levels that can be retaken ad infinitum until they are passed and primary tests tailored to fit the children? How is this going to be managed and by whom? In five years time we will be getting the good news that all our junior kids have made fantastic strides in literacy and numeracy, just like the generation of kids that have been told they are geniuses because they have apssed exams that can't be failed (eventually). Someone at the Ministry of Truth has been working overtime. Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth...

David Johnson, Dudley, England

Yet another 'radical shake-up', yet another '10-year plan'.

I sincerely hope this is soemthing worthwhile, but rising inside me once more is the feeling that I don't want these clowns messing about with my children's future anymore.

Leave my children alone.

MorrisOx, Nottingham,

Generally, as a retired teacher, i applaud Mr. Ball's reforming ideas. Had there been a total language immersion school in my area, I would have strongly considered sending my only child, a daughter, to it whatever the language. The theory is excellent, but in practice, it has its problems.
Given that girls in general are more inclined to sit still and learn, what would be done with all the young boys who just want to play? They should have male teachers who are interested in competition, but be flexible enough to accept girls also feel constrained to fulfill a "girly" stereotype.
Given that white "working class" boys lack decent role models, when do we gather them in and test them if we do not have the backing of parents who are attuned to the ethos and values of education?
I genuinely feel that the arts and information subjects should be amalgamated, but it needs the teacher to be sympathetic to the inner life and joy such information can bring. Educate for life, not a job.

Carlyle Braden, Croydon, UK

My next door neighbour was in my class at primary school. I always thought she was daft. She didn´t get to Grammar School. I did, but I made a mess of it. Susan (not her real name) became a pharmaceutical translator in Spain. She was something of a miracle. I work as something similar, also in Spain, but if I had Susan´s qualifications, I would earn twice the money.
Most of the kids who (in my generation) were destined for secondary modern schools are now working is shops, hotels, factories or in garages on the minimum wage.
Children are tested at too early an age, and with the new tests for primary school pupils, teachers have less and less time to teach, and children who obtain poor results just give up. I am NOT a psychologist, but I have been a teacher, and obviously have been a pupil And nobody can ever know when a pupil is going to shine. .
No wonder, then, that we are dropping down the educational league table

michael macauley, vitoria, spain

Continual assessment of how individual children are doing is what all teachers should be doing anyway and is why all teachers get non contact time! The difference here is that they will take externally set tests (not just internal ones) when they are ready, but all schools will still have to report on how many have reached acceptable levels by the age of 11, 14 and of course GCSE. With regard to the latter, those who take GCSE early are not included in the tables at the moment, this needs to change.

sk, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Great in theory. Does this mean there is to be an increase in teaching numbers? If children are to be taught at there own pace, and tested at their own pace, there will be so many levels of competence / achievement / interest etc that it will be impossible for a teacher/pupil ratio of 1:30 to work, or even 1:25 1:20 or 1:15. Many children will still need to be pushed, some harder than others

Rob, Hamilton, New Zealand

Will the new primary curriculum include how to name a teddy bear!

Chris, Ashford, Middlesex,