SIR – It was enlightening to watch a TV programme the other day, part of which focused on schooling in Finland, a country which is acknowledged as having the best education results in Europe if not the world.

This contrasts greatly with what we have lately been told by government minister Michael Gove, who has condemned a lot of the teaching and results in our schools and revealed changes he believes necessary to remedy the situation.

His favoured measures have included more testing even involving children younger than four years of age, further sanctions to punish perceived underachieving schools and their teachers and devolving more government money away from local authority schools to state sponsored private ‘Free’ schools.

Yet in Finland it seems there the state school primary children learn through play until aged seven, when formal education begins. They all seemed to be wearing their own clothes, as opposed to the British insistence on uniform, and the children apparently called the teacher by his/her first name.

There is little or no testing, and where schools are perceived as having problems, interventions are of the supportive kind. It seems this way of doing things has borne fruit, but is anyone in this country paying attention?

Are you listening at the back, Michael?

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose