WHAT A clever but devious plot to David Cameron’s appeal to his cabinet: “How can we reduce unemployment figures dramatically before the next election?” The education minister delivered the answer.

The most unemployable are those who cannot achieve minimum standards of education at age 16: a quarter of a million, despite lowering the standard level. If we keep them in full-time education for an extra year or two, you have your solution. There would be a greater requirement for teachers, again producing a reduction in unemployment.

If at the age of 16, after eleven years of education, children fail the simplest of standards, one or all of many causes should be addressed. Is it as a result of parental lack of interest and influence, poor education in the system or simply the child’s ability, for example?

This manoeuvring of statistics will not fool the educated, nor those kept at school.

Kevin Burke Chain Bridge Usk