WATCHING new university entrants being interviewed, I’m struck by how many seem clueless about things that really matter.

Some can’t even speak distinctly. It doesn’t say much for their previous education, does it?

I would therefore propose that school curricula be amended to include the following among their core subjects:- good manners, including basic communication skills; civic responsibilities, ethics; healthy lifestyles (including the danger of STDs etc); cookery; woodwork; DIY; modern (ie post 1914 history); home economics and gardening (including soil science).

These are vital life skills that could make all the difference between happiness and dysfunctionality.

Tony Kelly, Crook.