I found the story on the performance of ethnic minority pupils in GCSEs (Tackle Ethnic GCSE Problem, Oxford Mail, May 11) absolutely astonishing.

The story did not state this, but I am assuming the ethnic students we are talking about were born in this country, and would have therefore gone through the same educational system as the other ethnic students across the country who they were being judged against.

But the failure of Oxford teenagers to achieve higher GCSE results was, according to Patrick Tolani of Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council, the fault of their teachers because they were not representative of the children they were teaching.

I assume he means that the teachers were not from black or other ethnic minority backgrounds, so the inference I draw from this statement is that teachers have shown some form of racial discrimination in their teaching policy towards ethnic minority pupils – the result being below average marks in their GCSEs.

If this is what Mr Tolani is implying, it beggars belief .

There are many young students from non-ethnic backgrounds who fail to achieve above average GCSE results, but I am not aware that any of them blame their poor results on their teachers.

This is just a cheap use of the race card by Mr Tolani for the failings of this particular group of students.

Possibly, the answer may be more simple – like they did not study enough.

I also fail to see why one group of below average GCSE students should get more favourable treatment because of their ethnic background.

Is Sally Taylor of the county council really saying that if you have two schools next to one another with possibly the same number of below average GCSE students, the one with the greater number of black and minority ethnic students will receive additional funding? Why?

The word equality does not readily spring to mind. Keith Taylor, Abingdon