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So lack of "social skills" in working-class people causes the earnings gap ("'Unwashed' must brush up on their social skills", THES , May 17).

What price social mobility? The more who have degrees, the less valuable they are, and now they are required for jobs that a few years ago needed two O levels. Commenting on the National Child Development Study, Peter Saunders concluded in 1996 that class destinations have to be explained by something more than ability, that 38 per cent of those arriving in class I or II were "not bright enough to be there" and that "low-ability, middle-class children are twice as likely to succeed as low-ability children from semi-skilled and unskilled manual worker homes". In 1998, 1.6 per cent of university places went to women from social class D (semi-skilled or unskilled). Research at Essex University and the London School of Economics underlines this point.

The determination of a "certain social class" to look after its own interests and the practices that maintain it (including educational ones) are responsible for educational and income inequalities rather than the failings of those who don't belong to this class.

Heather Rutledge
Regional director, Midlands
Campaign for Learning