The trouble with T-levels and the academic/vocational divide

‘Teaching staff and leaders are working hard to ensure that all students enrolled on T-levels thrive.’ Photograph: Alamy

I am grateful to Susanna Rustin for her trenchant analysis of government failure to tackle the post-16 academic/vocational divide (T-levels are a disaster – and young people are suffering because ministers won’t admit it, 17 March).

While I agree that there is little evidence that T-levels are signalling the end of the “second-class status” of vocational education, the problem is only partly the fact that T-levels are too hard (overreliant on outmoded written examinations) and too narrow (how many of us can honestly look back to being 16 and knowing which career we wished to pursue?).