Girls to start school year later than boys

Adapted from a fax to the Institute.

If girls started primary school at age five, finishing secondary at sixteen, while boys started at six, finishing at seventeen, this would allow for the faster mental development of girls.

At present we try to resolve the problem of whether to educate girls in girls' schools or co-educational schools within an educational system structured around pupils' physical aages. If we structured around development age, perhaps the problem would largely disappear.

Tony Barney, 334 Old Laira Road, Plymouth PL3 6AQ (tel and fax 0752 261788).