History lessons about comprehensive schools

Pupils sit an exam at a UK secondary school. ‘In reality there have been very few real comprehensive schools in our class-ridden and unequal society,’ writes Tony Mitchell.Afua Hirsch (Free education is disappearing before our eyes, 28 November) contrasts the current state of education with that ushered in by the 1944 Education Act, which she writes established comprehensive schools.For elementary pupils the leaving age was 14 and the curriculum was narrow, and many of the older gram