SIR – Many adults complain about how teenagers these days just sit around all day, every day. Many also use the saying: “When I was your age I was working full-time.”

This isn’t really a fair thing to say as many companies now don’t take on teenagers, because of their lack of experience; but how can they receive experience if no-one will allow them to work?

The fact the country is in the centre of a huge recession is one of the main reasons so many teenagers are sat at home doing nothing.

If the Government spent more than just 13 per cent of its total expenditure on education, the future of our country would be a lot better. The Government plans to spend more on defence than it does on the education of the next generation.

It seems adults of today forget that the teenagers are going to be the people running this country in the future. So surely everyone should be doing as much as possible to make sure the mistakes that have been made by the Government this past decade won’t be made again.

The only way to save this country and give it a better future is to educate children of today as best as can be. If this means cutting down on other things, so be it. This is what our country needs and this is what the Government should be doing.

Emma Petrie, aged 15, Welbeck Drive, Bradford