14 JANUARY 1949, Page 15

SIR, —As a parent I thank you for the firm attitude

you are adopting over the new Secondary School Examination. Just as the scholastic profession and the universities know more about education than the officials of the Ministry, so do parents know more about their children and their aptitudes than those officials. However benevolent may be the intention behind it, the rigid rule that no child shall take the examination before 16 is a restriction of a parent's freedom ; a restriction, moreover, which is imposed just when, from other quarters, we parents are being exhorted to recognise our responsibilities to our children.

'To at least one parent it seems only common sense that the decision as to when a child should take an examination should be the result of discussion between parent and schoolmaster.—Yours truly,