Illiteracy is a handicap
From Mr Tom Burkard Sir: Alexander Wade is quite right to point out how the feminist bias in primary educa- tion may leave active, unreconstructed boys at a disadvantage (The boy can't help it', 2 September), but he is wrong to suggest that `behavioural reasons . . . might account for three-quarters of special needs registra- tion'. The report by Dr John Marks to which he refers states that three-quarters of special needs pupils can't read. At a subur- ban comprehensive where I recently taught, almost 90 per cent of the pupils on the spe- cial-needs register had poor literacy skills. Many were also disruptive, but this was the result rather than the cause of their reading problems.
Mr Wade is also wrong to suggest that girls are somehow immune to the problem. A 1998 Ofsted report found that 33 per cent of special-needs pupils in England are girls. This tallies exactly with the percent- age of girls registered in our private reme- dial reading programme.
I also think Mr Wade is a little unfair on female teachers. At Kobi Nazrul Primary School in Whitechapel, all children — boys and girls alike — can read. Their reading programme goes far beyond the National Literacy Strategy in teaching intensive phon- ics in reception year. My tests of their year four pupils revealed that on average they were 22 months ahead in spelling, despite the fact that nearly all of their pupils came from homes where little or no English is spoken. The teachers at Kobi Nazrul are all women, and they cope admirably with both sexes; at the last count, only five of their pupils were on the special-needs register.
The real scandal revealed by Dr Marks is that the special-needs industry in Britain, which consumes at least 10 per cent of all education spending, is totally unaccount- able. There are no objective criteria for assigning pupils to the special-needs register and no means at all for determining whether funds are well spent. Parents are deluded into thinking that a statement of special needs carries monies earmarked for their child's problems; in fact, the school can use these funds for carpeting the headmaster's office and no one will be any the wiser.
Tom Burkard
The Promethean Trust, Norwich
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