Positive idea to stop yob gangs

It's reported that 17 per cent of white working class boys and 19 per cent from a Caribbean background obtain five GCSEs. Across the country there is concern at the growing menace of so-called yob gangs causing serious aggravation.

It is obvious that there is a casual link which needs to be addressed.

In the absence of any evidence suggesting the authorities have a plan to counteract the threat, and in view of many who think in terms of Asbos, bringing back the birch, on-the-spot fines, boot camps and such like, I'll throw my hat in the ring with something positive.

Politicians come and go but collectively headteachers have the knowledge and clout to set an agenda despite the EU and Home Office. Begin by freeing them from the bureaucracy that is partially responsible for causing yob culture.

Begin with year nine. By then, heads and senior staff have sufficient knowledge of the individual pupil to make a judgment on the facilities needed to bring about a positive outcome. Almost certainly it will be found that the present problem has its roots in the "one size fits all" curriculum whereby success is judged almost exclusively on the number of academic passes.

There is a desperate shortage of tradesmen such as painters and decorators, plumbers, joiners, plasterers and brickies. It should not be beyond the wit of our elected masters to see that courses having a practical element, some of it off-site, from year 10 onwards could be the answer to solving a double problem. Councils could go back to the apprenticeship schemes that were popular not so long ago, instead of the plethora of non-jobs currently advertised. It would cost money to set up but pay off handsomely.

A young man doing a job he likes, supervised by an experienced men-tor, after a study course he deems purposeful, being appreciated with pride in himself and cash of his own, is unlikely to spend his evening hurling bricks at streetlights.

Norman Freeman, The Greenlands, Wombourne.