LONDON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The head of a private school in Britain says public schools in that country are poorly equipping students for life by handing out "worthless" qualifications.
Barnaby Lenon of Harrow School says students are being led to believe "high grades in soft subjects" and attending "any old university to (major in) any subject" will advance them in life, The Guardian newspaper reported Friday.
"Let us not deceive our children, especially children from poorer homes, with worthless qualifications," Lenon said.
Michael Gove, the Tory shadow education secretary, agreed.
"More children who were eligible for free school (majored) in media studies than in physics, chemistry and biology combined," Gove said.
A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families took exception.
"These are pretty cheap and insulting comments," he said. "It's easy to make sweeping, rhetorical flourishes about so-called hard and soft subjects -- but it is wrong to ignore the hard work of tens of thousands of teachers and pupils and misrepresent the state of education in this country."
