Until learning differences, especially dyslexia (20 percent of children are affected) are addressed, the schools will still be in the dark ages. Until an education can meet individual needs since everyone has different learning styles, society will lose many of its most talented problem solvers.

brenda hanseler, Vancouver, USA

Fancy that...

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

If only parents would begin the process of learning to read by reading to kids every day as a pleasurable activity - well before they go to school. A love of being read to and the joys of stories is a great incentive to read for yourself. Both my boys were read to from the age of about 18 months.

Hugo, Hobart, Tasmania

Simple, isn't it? All pupils in my Year 1 primary school class (in NZ, 20+ years ago) had regular 1-to-1reading sessions with our teacher as well as reading school books with our parents at home. That any child leaves school hardly able to read and write is a gross failure by parents and teachers.

Vivienne , London,

What a surprise? Curiously enough Oxford and Cambridge have been teaching one on one and intensively in small groups for hundreds of years and it works!

Of course children will respond like this. Big classes are not the way to teach. Neither are tables with children with their backs to the teacher.

Dr. Nick Ashley, Huntingdon, England

Smaller class sizes would enable this to be standard practice and there would be no need for these extra lessons. How do they expect 5 and 6 year olds to learn in class of 30 or more?

liz, Ely, Cambs

How about tackling lack of reading at home? Parents also have a key role to play in teaching children to read

Lucy, London,

We had to teach our daughter to read some 15 years ago, as the school told us that if they she to read tshe'd pick up a book. One to one with parents is just as good as with a teacher, and further more it's free.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

One to one tuition for reading and maths should start at home and then be built on at school. However, I suspect some parents are too lazy and selfish to teach their own children anything at all. The UK consistently throws money at lazy people, to the detriment of those who work hard.

C, Sheffield,

My twin daughters, now aged 15, could have done with this help. As it is, I do n ot expect them to attain the 'magic' 5 GCSE's at grade 'C' or above next year.
How many others are there like them ,who have been failed by the education system,who have had no help nor likely to get any?

Tony Smith, The Lizard, UK

This article does show state school education in a bad light. Many parents will be wondering why some children have failed to realise their potential after years of normal schooling . Other parents may be wondering whether the "brighter" pupils are realising their potential.

Des, Edinburgh,

Reading Recovery programmes started in New Zealand in the early 1990's and has been copied in many countries.
Great programme in theory.
Today the reading habit is dying-one cannot expect the reading enthusiasm to develop in a non reading home,english as second language or dysfunctional families.

Neil Harvey, Gore, New Zealand