I NOTE with interest the article from John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, (“There is clear evidence growing up in poverty undermines attainment”, The Herald April 18). There have been many warnings to the effect that poverty blights attendance at school for a large number of our children. There are those today going to school hungry and with poverty-related mental and physical issues. We have reports by teachers of children arriving at school dirty, with defective teeth, and unsuitable shoes. We are aware that many children live in damp conditions and, as a result, some indicate that they like going school because it is a warm place to be. How, as a result of factors such as these, can the school experience for so many children be anything other than profoundly unsatisfactory?

It is also reported (“Poorest pupils face postcode lottery over exam results”, The Herald, April 18) that there is, moreover, a significant gap in deprived communities to such an extent, indeed, that pupils in some disadvantaged areas are performing more than twice as well as those attending school in disadvantaged areas elsewhere in Scotland. Is it again any real surprise that schools in what are described as “poor neighbourhoods” in local authority areas like East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire achieved better results than similarly classified areas in the likes of South Lanarkshire and Edinburgh City?

Clearly, life is not fair, and is unlikely ever to be completely so. However, the Scottish Government has failed many of our young and must move on from simply blaming Westminster and do better to improve the educational lot of our children.

Ian W Thomson,

38 Kirkintilloch Road,

Lenzie.

I CONCUR with the reminiscences and observations from John Black (Letters, April 17) in all he makes comment on.

Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were brought up in the village of St Vigeans, Arbroath, from families that lived in a row of cottages with the barest amenities so described.

I well recall one grandmother, who had borne nine children with seven reaching adulthood, carrying two pails of water several times a day from the pump that served the needs of the villagers, the daily ritual of cleaning a large paraffin lamp that provided light in what could be regarded as the living room, cooking on a stove that adjoined the ever-lit open fireplace with my grandfather cleaning out as and when necessary the outside toilet., the contents of which along with the quicklime were put on the plot at the back door whereby he grew a splendid selection of vegetables. Recycling with a purpose, indeeed.

The children of both families did not have much in material wealth but had the care, comfort and love of their parents and on receiving adequate education at the village school went on to have fulfilling and meaningful lives.

My mother told of the introduction of a children’s benefit (as I think it was) of whatever amount brought about by Lloyd George (as Chancellor as I believe he was at the time) with her mother remarking: “It is to help you, not to keep you.”

How would that comment be received in present day times? The created wealth of today by a large sector of the population by whatever means has certainly not brought happiness and contentment.

John Macnab,

175 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston,

Falkirk.