ANNA Coda, the Labour Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Hereford and South Herefordshire,states that “the fairness of school league tables is largely a matter of opinion” (Tables don’t relate to needs of pupils, Letters, February 19).

While I sympathise with her point of view relating to individual schools, on the wider international comparative stage, the performance of primary and secondary schools to the age of 18 in England is appalling.

Taking the member countries of the EU, Great Britain ranks 26th out of 28; Lithuania (population approx 3 million) is top, followed in close order by Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic etc.

Throwing money at a problem is not necessarily the answer. I speak as a lay observer; as a lawyer, but with extensive experience of the Baltic States, plus the former Communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

I have been travelling and working in these regions since 1969, and one of the reasons so many Poles, Lithuanians and Hungarians etc can work here is because their teaching of English as a foreign language is superb, and we are by comparison, so poor.

I agree with Ms Coda, who I do not know personally, on improving teachers’ pay and numbers and conditions, and also opportunities for all pupils, whether destined for university or not.

CHRISTOPHER SHORT Aberystwyth Crescent, Barry