THE Government of Tories and Liberal Democrats promised that education is an important element in its spending programmes and would therefore not be subject to cuts.

The hollowness of this claim is illustrated by the slashing of areabased grants, many of which address the social issues of young people, and the proposed axing of Animal World and the Butterfly House in Moss Bank Park.

The former will directly affect the ability of our youngsters to cope with the stresses society places upon them and therefore their learning, and the latter directly affects their ability to access a valuable learning resource, widely used by schools and those that work and study in them.

The ignorance of the politicians in understanding the learning process, and the importance of factors extraneous to schools in assisting that process is extraordinary.

They seem to believe that children should enter and leave schools like raw material enters and leaves industry — ready to be moulded at one end and ready to be used and exploited at the other end.

And they seem to believe that destroying Animal World by closing or commercialising it, which is tantamount to the same thing, they can fulfil their own financial “responsibilities”.

It all looks good on the accounts sheets, but does nothing to help children appreciate the richness, diversity and beauty of the world we live in.

This is why these outrageous cuts need to be fought.

Barry Conway Secretary Bolton NUT