Tories are keeping poor from education

YOUR Western Mail Comment on August 22 deals with the finding that far fewer young people from the poorer areas of Wales are applying to university.

The article concludes that one of the reasons for this is that “there remain too many parents who show no interest in their children’s education and do little to encourage them”.

Schools and teachers are also to blame and, somewhat bizarrely, “that there’s a need to manage better the transition from primary to secondary school”. This I find insulting to parents, schools and teachers. Why did you not make reference to George Osbourne’s Budget of July 2015?

This abolished university maintenance grants for lowerincome students in England and Wales from September 2016.

The alleged reason for this measure was because of the “basic unfairness in asking taxpayers to fund grants for people who are likely to earn a lot more than them”.

In reality it was one more move to keep the poor from education – consistent with centuries of Tory policy.

What we are seeing in 2017 is, from a Conservative point of view, the success of this policy.

So before you blame parents, teachers and schools in poorer areas of Wales, please place the blame where it really lies – with the Conservative Party.

The remedy, as many young people suggested with their vote in the 2017 General Election, is to elect Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister. David S Evans Cardiff