As a pensioner I have seen many things over the years one could call madness but, under the present Government, we have political correctness gone mad.

One of the biggest problems is willingness to claim sexism or racism without reasoned supporting arguments.

And headtachers are frightened to be outspoken so both schools and pupils suffer.

"Anti-tolerance" should be allowed. Why should schools have to spend scarce resources supporting and defending legal decisions which result from parents and lawyers trying to play down pupils' terrible behaviour and shift the blame on to the teachers at the school.

One hears of tales of teachers being sworn at, bullied and sometimes even assaulted by pupils and parents, cars scratched and kicked and so on.

I wonder how many talented young teachers are lost because they cannot take any more challenges to their self-respect, decisions and sense of worth for the fear of reprisals?

All state schools should receive direct funding from the treasury. The savings made by dispensing with the local bureaucracy could be used immediately for teacher recruitment, training and remuneration.

The worst aspect of political correctness in the education system is the acceptance of mediocrity as being good enough to get by when, in fact, we are squandering the potential of a lot of youngsters and probably condemning at least 30 per cent to a future in which they will not make a positive contribution to themselves or the community.

The bureaucracy we have now is a world of faceless strangers which is replacing the professional judgment of head teachers and the good teachers who work under them.

I doubt there is a single education brain in the Ministry of Education worthy of respect.

-Teresa Pither, Peacehaven