WHY does the Government continually change the way our children are taught? To improve standards, but for who - the children or the universities?

Over the last ten years I have watched my daughter be used as a guinea pig for each new idea: SATs for seven-year-olds and then the new AS/A2s, all with the assurance that it will improve her future.

On the August 15 I waited with my daughter as she collected her results. Hooray! She'd passed all three subjects so her hard work was justified. She didn't have the exact requirements for the university of her choice, but the new points system gave her 40 points more than she needed.

But the university has over-subscribed the course. There's no place for my daughter.

Then we learn that one of her exams has been sent back for remarking. The university says all hope is not lost, but then rings back to say that under the old points system she will still fall short. So why bring in a new system if all universities don't have to use it?

Why should children who have worked so hard be at the mercy of admissions officers, who don't know the number of places available and are trying their hardest to reduce the number of applicants so it looks as if they've done their jobs properly?

Fortunately for my daughter there is a happy ending: her "insurance choice" is quite happy to give her a place. Only now she has to reapply to the local education authority and student loans company.

I hope this letter isn't too long to print, but when you're angry it helps to talk - especially as now I have to be in the right frame of mind to support my son when he receives his GCSE results. - Name and address supplied, County Durham.

RIVER TEES

AS someone who has fished in the River Tees for many years, I would back Don Taylor's claim that the salmon fishing in the Tees is at an all time low (Echo, Aug 20).

There were reports of large numbers of salmon in the estuary prior to the last flood which lifted the river levels to the height needed to bring the salmon into the Tees. So far I have not heard of any being seen.

While I do not doubt that an odd fish may have entered the river, there are nowhere near the numbers one would expect in a river of this size and quality.

The Environmental Agency's assertion that there is continuous improvement in salmon numbers needs to be questioned. I would be interested to know what scientific method is being used to back up this claim. How do they count the numbers of salmon entering the River Tees? Are the salmon able to negotiate the fish pass? Do they use the fish pass? What evidence do they have of this?

While evidence from anglers is necessarily empirical, I feel its validity is more in keeping with the truth. If this is the case, salmon should be deemed a protected species before it disappears all together. - J. Jenkins, Butterknowle, Bishop Auckland.

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

CHRIS Foote-Wood (HAS, Aug 22) accuses the Tories of hypocrisy because they would vote against a regional assembly but be happy to take a seat should the assembly take shape.

If we go through life like that then at every meeting at work I don't agree with, I should tender my resignation. Those defeated in council chambers should walk out and never return and those defeated in a show of hands in the House of Commons should run home to mother.

We are already paying for the assembly. The Echo has carried adverts for its well-paid officers and the 'yes' campaign has been given £2.4m (to share with Yorkshire) to promote one side of the argument.

Did I miss the referendum? _ Jim Tague, Chairman, Conservative Party, Bishop Auckland branch.

THE correspondent's pro-regional assembly views (HAS, Aug 22) are a desperate attempt to convince us that the assembly and proportional representation are the answer to our prayers.

We are told that we will have elected representatives instead of Government quangos, and cites the success of the assembly in Scotland - but it is only a matter of time before Scotland is seeking independence. Whether devolution was subterfuge to promote that or a serious miscalculation on his part, only time will tell.

Proportional representation will cause more problems as smaller parties will get a bigger share of the cake.

If regional assemblies will give us a better future, then fine. But at the moment there are a lot of fine promises that don't add up. Are we replacing one quango with another? Are we creating more cushy jobs for the boys with the usual cock-ups and excuses? - John Young, Crook.

RUBBISH

IN the old days of the "dustbin", the dustbin men collected the bin and emptied it and returned it and the householder was so grateful almost everyone gave the dustbin men a small Christmas present.

Nowadays when the households has to put his wheelie bin out on the right day (bank holidays change the day) and after the wheelie bin is emptied the householder has to return it from the roadside, should not the council show its gratitude by giving the householder a Christmas present? - E Reynolds, Wheatley Hill.

ANIMAL WELFARE

AM I to assume that The Northern Echo is waiting for yet more people to be maimed and killed because of animal "research", the results of which cannot be extrapolated between the species? Could this be why you were nowhere to be seen in Harrogate when you should have been at the recent national demonstration against Covance, the animal research laboratory.

The Harrogate Advertiser attended the demonstration, but the police made themselves unusually scarce. And where, might I ask, were the residents of Harrogate and North Yorkshire? - AP Kirk, Teesside.