When one in five students from private schools applies for HSC disability provisions,the integrity of the exam has to come into question. Yet another example of the great divide. When will the powers that be listen? A fair education system must be at the centre of our society,it must reflect who we are. Fair funding,a fair playing field for all students equals a fair country,where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Why is this so hard?Lisa Williams,Dulwich Hill

Donkey voters

Your correspondent (Letters, December 1) thinks that eligible voters should be allowed the option of not voting,or voting informally,if and only if they are either completely ignorant of the candidates or don’t care which candidate is elected. I disagree. In a democracy voting should be compulsory so one can say the people have spoken. It doesn’t matter that so-called “donkey” voters may determine the outcome of an election. If such voters vote,for whatever reason,for candidates in the order listed on the ballot paper,it is not for any of the rest of us to say they shouldn’t do so. In any case,not all voters view a list in the same way. Many of us would read a list down and to the right. Others,Arabic and Hebrew readers for example,might tend to view a list (as,for example,on a Senate ballot paper) from right to left. Most of us,too,are familiar with graphs having an origin in the lower-left corner,counting upwards and to the right. A “donkey” voter might view the ballot paper list as starting from the bottom. Some donkeys are more or less donkey than others.Ross Drynan,Lindfield