CO-OPERATION rather than competition is the way forward among Pendle high schools, says a head teacher who criticised the "dog eat dog" attitudes of Government education policies at his annual prize presentation night.

Martin Burgess, head of Edge End High, Nelson, said he was proud of the achievements of pupils and staff that put the school's improvement record in the top five per cent in the country.

Mr Burgess said Edge End was "back in fashion after several years in the wilderness" with 500 parents attending recent open evenings in preparation for a new intake of students next autumn.

He said: "Of course parental preference or choice is important and has always been so. There have always been popular and unpopular schools but parents' expectations have been raised too much by the 1988 Education Reform Act, the media and a succession of politicians.

"Many children become unnecessarily distressed and schools, panic-stricken at possible financial consequences, do things that harm rather than enhance the educational experience. It has become possibly the most upsetting and destructive aspects of education today.

"At the heart of all this is the concept that competition is the panacea for all ills in society. The idea that there has to be a winner and a loser in everything divides rather than solves."

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