IN THE latest issue of the council’s usually self-congratulatory journal BHlife, education director Jane Portman has rather suggested the council has been getting things wrong with the Outdoor Education Centre at Hengistbury Head.

She states that it costs £20 per pupil per visit – and that is regarded as too much to pay! What price education?

Can she quote similar figures for other classroom activities for comparison?

Government recommendations are for more teaching outside the schools. The Hengistbury Head Centre offers unique activity in a unique location. While councillors imply optimism on the possibility of its survival under an external consortium, the reality is that the valuable environmental facility could be sacrificed in favour of sport.

Nature studies are not mentioned in Ms Portman’s article, yet they are cheap compared with watersports.

In a year when the whole world is celebrating Charles Darwin, Bournemouth council is complacent about the fate of the Darwin Classroom.

For some 30 or more years this small shed has brought local (and not so local) children face-to-face with the wonders of nature, geology and archaeology.

The teachers at the Hengistbury Head Centre have been magnificent, engendering amongst the young a love and respect for the natural world. Lessons we fail to learn at our peril.

Recently the Echo has highlighted the wanton destruction by idiot incendiaries on Talbot Heath.

I wonder what the cost is per fireman per visit? Somewhat more than £20, I would imagine. And how do we price essential services like hospitals, law enforcement, etc? They, like education, are priceless investments.
JOHN CRESSWELL, Southlands Avenue, Bournemouth