reading & writing

The government announced that their policy of trying to get children to read by throwing money at it has not worked. How is it that a child can go through nearly a decade of education without learning to read? It must have come up at some point during the lesson, their non completion of homework might have been a clue. What strategies have been put in place to combat this at an early stage?
The way to get children to read is to teach them. They should be taught according to their ability, not their age, and parents should take resposibility for this as well, in the age of cheap books, where a childs book can be bought at a charity shop for 10 pence, there is no excuse for not reading to children, or taking the time to listen to them read. If one in five children cannot read when they leave primary school, then that is one in five of the population that has the potential to end up in prison. Thats scary isn't it?
It also comes down to something that I have mentioned before, the inability of continuous governments to understand that the best way to teach children is in smaller classes. This means recognising the worth of teachers, paying them a decent salary, and more important turn them back into a profession, not a service.
The whole system of education in this country is crumbling and needs to be readdressed. By closing schools only to reopen them as acadamies is not the way. Look at Royal Mail as an example of that procedure. Education needs a rethink, it needs to put the children first and by that I mean that all schools no matter where they are should have the same standards, if they havent then its not the children or the teachers who are failing its the government policy.
We have become a nation obseesed by what things cost not what their worth.
Some children can't read because they have been let down by the system, but what excuse is there for politicians who wont hear.
As a tangent to the schools criteria, how about reopening some of the local schools. Small cottage schools where children know each other and so do the parents. Where the teachers live in the area and strangely enough maybe within walking distance. Is it just me or are the roads a lot clearer when the schools are on holiday.
How about building some smaller community schools and just to keep the bills down how about making themgreen and energy sustainable or is that too radical?