It is a story that is easy for some of us to believe, especially those who are trying to balance two things -- the reasonable desire of both parents and teachers that pupils should get as good examination results as possible. Often both parents and teachers say that anything less than a high grade is not acceptable. Either the child is blamed because he/she did not work hard enough or the school is blamed because it did not teach well enough.

I could write you an article on this but let me just tell two stories. One is of a British Asian girl in a prestigious High School there. She was working very hard and doing well but was not brilliant. The staff reluctantly agreed to write nothing but 'A's on her reports when they heard that, if they gave any 'B' grades, her father locked her in her room and told her she must work harder. She was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

The other story concerns the University that is round the corner from my home in the UK. It has the highest percentage of overseas students in the UK, many of them living in rooms in high, tower blocks. While on my annual holiday last month, I heard that the authorities have had to put special catches on the windows to stop students jumping out of the windows to kill themselves because they cannot face their families who have paid so much for their education but the children did not receive 'necessary' high grades.

Over-ambitious parents and some schools and coaching centres that feed off them have a lot to answer for. It is these precious children who are paying the price of an interpretation of the word 'education' that pays no attention to the reality and the way it should be allowed to dove-tail with what childhood and growing-up, too, should be about.