Another nail in education's coffin

The betrayal of our children continues. To add to the dumbing down of education by both parties, we now learn of the teacher who was arrested for possession of crack cocaine but has kept his job because he is apparently an "excellent" role model for children

Michael Swann, 27, who teaches at Maltby Comprehensive in Rotherham was given a caution for possession of the Class A drug after being found with it in a nightclub.

He denies the drugs were his and claims that he found them in the club lavatory. Of course, you did mate, of course you did - that's why you accepted a caution - because you had never seen them before.

What message does this send to children?

Teacher, leave them programmes alone

Every year at their annual conference the National Union of Teachers come up with some nonsense - this year we have had banning the army from giving talks in schools.

Yesterday, Steve Sinnott, the union secretary, called for the quiz show Never Mind the Buzzcocks to be toned down to prevent glamorising insults and nastiness.

Perhaps, Mr Sinnott should first ensure that when children leave school they can read, write and do simple maths - then he can rant on with his ridiculous ideas.