NOT long ago, John Blunt wrote a piece under the title 'The Lesson That Teachers Have Not Learned,' about performance-related pay, which teachers were rejecting.

His theme was: performance-related pay is applied in every other job, so why not teaching? This was a welcome addition to his previous theme of 'trendy' teachers. (Those who did not dress like prospective Conservative MPs).

Well, teachers saw that the Minister of Education was determined to push through performance-related pay, so they concentrated on the minister's rule of measurement: examinations.

We see the result -- those pupils who were expected to do well did even better.

John Blunt's theme now changed to that of this is not what education is all about. That, of course, is what teachers had been trying to say.

Of course, old Labour fulminated against piecework as a Tory sweat shop practice. In the attempt to bring in performance-related pay New Labour showed its true colours.

However, what about those young people whose whooping-for-joy photographs were not in the paper? They are young citizens too and have the same rights -- exam results are not the only criterion in life.

JULIAN PILLING, Railway Street, Nelson.