HAVING only recently moved to the area, I welcome your publication of local schools performance league tables. I was pleased to see the outstanding performance of pupils and teachers in York, where education is an important issue, but still every child can go to school.

But throughout the world 125 million children will not be able to go to school today or tomorrow because their governments can't afford to provide free primary education.

Parents are forced to make impossible choices: to buy medicines or to send one of their children to school.

New Oxfam research carried out in Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia has found that school fees magnify other problems including gender inequality where two thirds of those missing an education are girls.

Yet with support, ending school fees does work. Removing school fees in Malawi saw the school population double in a year. In Uganda withdrawal of fees at the start of the 1997/98 school year resulted in an increased school enrolment of three million children.

Oxfam is calling for an increase in the UK aid budget, especially to fund education, and for developing country governments to invest more in learning.

People in York can help make the difference by supporting the Oxfam Education Now campaign. For more information call 0113 2882800.

Rebecca Palmer,

Low Petergate, York.

Updated: 12:25 Wednesday, November 28, 2001