OF course children would be fitter and healthier if they walked or cycled to school every day, instead of being chauffeur-driven by doting parents (“Pupils miss out on exercise over parents’ fears on school journeys”, The Herald, January 8). Most of the relatively few accidents in which children are injured take place outside the school gates, due to the parking and manoeuvring of a large number of cars in a small area at the same time.

Children should be capable of walking safely to school if they were taught to take proper care and pay attention to traffic signals, while at all road crossings these days there are “lollipop helpers” to ensure safe transit at school opening and closing times.

And they would be much the better of a brisk walk or cycle run in the open air at the start of each day. In my (admittedly prehistoric) days as a pupil very few families had a car, far less a separate one for the mother, and virtually all children walked or cycled to school. Some journeys also entailed an unaccompanied bus ride.

For years I cycled to school daily, admittedly with much less traffic to cope with, but I still had to deal with lots of buses and tramcars, slippery cobble-stoned roads, and, even then, a busy traffic junction at Anniesland Cross.

I never gave it a thought; nor, I am sure, did my parents and I did not have any problem or injury. When I got to school, having inhaled a good dose of fresh air (and sometimes having endured a good soaking too), I’m sure I was much fitter and healthier than today’s molly-coddled youngsters sitting like VIPs the back of a car.

Iain AD Mann, 7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

I HAVE been following the discussions about education in The Herald and, as a former teacher, find they make disturbing reading. The fact that there are so many teacher vacancies says it all (“Warning from councils over the quality of new teachers”, The Herald, January 5).

When I started teaching in 1971 people were queuing up to be teachers. There was not the infernal bureaucracy there is today. Also, standards were far higher than at present.

Since 1971 in schools, colleges and universities there has been a dumbing down of standards, partially due to so-called initiatives such as Curriculum for Excellence being one.

It is not surprising that young people, given the appalling nature of the new school curriculum, are less than enthusiastic to be teachers.

The damage caused by so-called educational reformers, coupled with the lack of opportunity, has also made the job of teachers and lecturers very difficult. However, there are many young people who, despite all the follies of the politicians, have achieved wonderfully. I saw this while I was a councillor in South Lanarkshire at the annual educational awards in Hamilton.

But there is an urgent need to improve standards of literacy and numeracy and job opportunities for all young people. This is a major task but present educational policies will not help.

We must invest both in our young people and also in job opportunities for them. If we do not we will end up in the mire of drugs, depression and disillusionment.

Ed Archer,

18 Hope Street, Lanark.