ONCE again, Comment (LET, March 11) totally missed the point.

I do not believe that any teacher is afraid of appraisal and accountability. (Each school, and teacher, is brought to account through the OFSTED inspection system, which, in itself, is not without problems).

However, what teachers are afraid of is the way that education is moving - an issue you side-tracked by attacking the NUT instead.

The Government's Green Paper does not 'provide gains' for those 'doing a proper job,' rather it will divide the staff within a school and reward a few because that is a cheaper option.

Do the results of a particular Year 6 class in their SATS tests, for example, reflect the performance of the Year 6 teacher, or the six years of teaching that have gone before? Or, in my case, the hard work of parents that has gone before?

As for the 'real world' - I appreciate how performance-related pay may or may not work in industry, but we are talking about the end product in this case being a child. Children are not components on a conveyor belt, to be measured and quality controlled. There is not even a 'British Standard' child - the prototype does not exist, thank goodness!

Also, there are so many factors outside the school which can affect a child's learning; factors over which a teacher has no control. (Hence, the league tables having no true value).

The Green Paper and performance-related pay is a move to measure only the intellectual results of each child, when I believe that most people, even in the 21st century, will still need to be physically, emotionally and socially developed in order to cope in their everyday lives.

'Sensible and realistic teachers' can see the implications of the Green Paper for teaching, but ultimately what the effect of a system of gaining results at all costs will have on the children.

DEBBIE GORNALL, teacher, Audley Nursery School, Queens Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.