KEITH Ross (Letters, September 20) makes interesting observations reflecting on his education at Glasgow's former Victoria Drive Secondary school growing up in the 1960s and 70s in that area of the city.

I am not convinced it is entirely fair to blame the then Glasgow Corporation for the rise in pupil numbers being due to new multi-story flats. The very large increase in secondary pupil numbers throughout Scotland during the 1970s was largely due to the fact that in the early 1960s there were more than 100,000 births annually in Scotland; which was the highest since the post-Second World War baby boom years. In comparison, the figure today is only about half of that.

I consider the fact that Mr Ross seems to dwell on the pursuit of academic excellence presents a limited view. Many of the parents of pupils at his old school would have been employed in the local shipbuilding and engineering industries and certainly would have had ambitions for their children of all interests, aptitudes and talents. I feel the reference to “healthy rivalry” and also “healthy competition” as effective learning motivators are perhaps exclusive to certain personalities. They can also be highly damaging, dispiriting and demoralising. The view, perhaps conflicts a little with his impression that “education was something to be valued, not just because it could lead to a better paid job, but for its own sake”.

However I felt that Mr Ross rather gave the game away by introducing himself as someone appointed by Mensa to speak on the radio in 2015 against “charges of elitism”. I understand that British Mensa claims to have members who have IQs in the top two per cent. He must have found his education a cakewalk.

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.