17 SEPTEMBER 1977, Page 15

Reforming the syllabus

Sir: I was most heartened by Logie Bruce Lockhart's analysis of the current upper school education system (13 August). As a student in my second year sixth form at a London public school I have endured for a year now the stifling effect of rigid subject syllabuses and the orientation of the school towards these syllabuses. The situation is especially exasperating because the whole school, from the headmaster downwards, is aware of the suffocating consequence of the system. Whilst admirable, if futile, attempts are engineered to offer a broader education wherever possible, the school is virtually impotent in the matter.

Andrew J. White 41, Hodford Road, Golders Green, NW11