Exciting times for education EDUCATION for 14 to 19-year-olds has been the focus of much discussion this week following the publication of a 200-page report by a committee headed by Mike Tomlinson, the former chief inspector of schools.

Among its aims are to raise core skills of literacy, numeracy and ICT; to improve vocational education; to encourage greater educational participation beyond the age of 16; and to stretch and differentiate the most able students more clearly all through the introduction of a proposed new school diploma.

All these aims are laudable but we shall have to wait until the Government responds officially in a White Paper in the new year before we know exactly what might or might not actually happen.

Certainly there are educational concerns to be addressed nationally for example, the large number of pupils who leave school without basic literacy and numeracy skills; also how industry and universities can select the most able pupils when already 20 per cent of A Level passes are at grade A.

On the latter point, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP and Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins this week urged that only the top five or ten per cent should get a proposed A-double-plus or distinction diploma the Government responding that quality, not quota, should determine top grading.

In all this, it is worth remembering that the quality of education here in South Lakeland is already superb. We have some first class schools whose pupils achieve higher than average grades. Meanwhile, colleges like Kendal College are offering a genuine vocational alternative.

If the Government and Tim Collins - should his party gain power - could spread the good practices which exist in South Lakeland throughout the country, then national education standards would immediately rise.

One danger of the Tomlinson report's recommendations is that if a large vocational element is taken into schools it could undermine the pursuit of academic excellence in those schools. Better, surely, to have well-funded, well-resourced colleges to provide the vocational dimension and similarly-funded and resourced schools providing the academic thrust.

Meanwhile, at higher education level, exciting moves are afoot to create a University of Cumbria not on a single greenfield site but by integrating and linking, through high-tech communication systems, various institutions, such as the University of Central Lancashire, St Martin's College and Cumbria Institute of the Arts.

Such moves are vital to try to halt the brain drain' of bright young people leaving this area and to attract similar people into the county.

This area is a base for high-tech companies, which need access to the brightest and best-qualified young people. A Cumbria university, albeit spread over different sites, would be an excellent way to ensure that need can be met.