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"Cuts to research into education must be halted," says the British Educational Research Association (February 6). I disagree. Research into education produces calamitously stupid ideas that are put into practice in schools.

The results are plain to see: undergraduates with three As at A level who cannot find their way round a library catalogue, do not know how to write an essay and are almost illiterate in their mother tongue. As a result, universities must devote resources to equipping students with the basic academic skills they have failed to acquire in 13 years of schooling.

Educationists have created this situation. I see no reason why they ought not to pay for it.

Richard Austen-Baker
Coventry