In your editorial Challenges and opportunities (TMID, 6 January), you speak of calculated risks and ask how far governments can go without putting the country they administer in jeopardy.

I think that the government is taking a big gamble with the reform in the education system. The removal of examinations had led to chaos and low standards in government schools in the 1970s and 1980s, so much so that parents started doing their best to place their children in Church schools.

I do hope that this will not happen again. The removal of examinations might reduce stress, but it will not lead to the “production” of better students. On the contrary, I think that such a reform will take us back 30 years.

Can we afford it?

Carmen Micallef

Hamrun