Theresa May’s focus on schools strategy to right the deplorable state of our education system could transform prospects

WITH all the recent focus on Brexit and Donald Trump, it’s easy to forget that there are many other huge issues for the Government to tackle.

One of them is the deplorable state of too many of our schools.

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The industrial strategy to be published this week rightly puts improving education and technical training at its heart.

Ours is the only economy in the developed world where 16-24 year olds are no more literate or numerate than 55-64 year olds. That shows just how greatly we have failed generations of children.

Yes, there are many brilliant schools with outstanding teachers.

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But there are a shameful number of schools that are almost useless.

Figures out last week show that over a quarter of a million children are taught in schools that cannot manage even the basic standard for GCSEs.

For generations we have devalued technical education.

This week’s industrial strategy could transform pupils’ prospects if it really does offer an alternative path. We are going to need ever greater numbers of highly skilled workers.

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Mrs May’s plan to expand specialist maths schools is another good idea, and it’s encouraging that she grasps the scale of what needs to be done.

Because we are still far, far behind where we need to be.

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'HE'S BEEN THROUGH HELL'

Real Madrid ace Cristiano Ronaldo pleads for Lebanese lad orphaned in ISIS suicide bombing to be allowed to live in UK

Haidar's helping hand

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THE world smiled when Haidar Mustafa, a Lebanese boy orphaned by terrorists, got to meet his football idol Cristiano Ronaldo.

Haidar was just three when his parents were killed in an ISIS suicide bombing in Beirut in November 2015.

Now his cousins, who live in London, have applied to the Home Office for him to be allowed to join them.

We’re a nation that has always held out a hand to those genuinely in need.

We’ve no doubt that Home Secretary Amber Rudd will do the right thing so Britain can give him the start in life that he was denied by the butchers of ISIS.

Pride and groom

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LYING at death’s door after the Tunisia beach massacre, Matt James could only have dreamed that he’d now be back home in Wales and married to his fiancée Saera.

But yesterday he walked down the aisle. Or rather, limped — because the NHS has disgracefully refused him the operation he needs to restore feeling to his left leg.

Matt is a bona fide hero, and deserves to be treated with respect, not contempt.