14 JUNE 1963, Page 16

SIR,—The recent Birthday Honours list suggests dri ,j e reason why it

is difficult to recruit enough g0°.'s teachers for our schools. Such recognition .as given to education (and this is small enough 01 a conscience) goes (rightly) to distinguished university teachers, with an occasional minor honour to some local administrator. Even the humblest honours seem to evade those who actually teach: yet one would have .thought that the service rendered to the nation by (say) the head of an important school, or the head of a large department in such a school, would be as valuable as those of most industrialists, cricketers, footballers, play-producers, or jockeys. Political speeches and broadcasts seek to persuade us that the Government think education important. Perhaps the Honours List shows us what they really think.

R. J. BEES Bucknell, Shropshire