Every child deserves to get a good education, and every parent wants their child to go to a good school. The problem is that there doesn’t appear to be enough god schools to go around. With this problem, the best schools are finding that an increasing number of parents are lying to win their child the school place they want. This has involved lying about a child’s religion as well as lying about where their child lives.

This is very unfair on those parents who follow the rules and who miss out on getting their child a place at their school of choice because other parents have cheated the system, but now the government are planning to do something about it.

Ed Balls the schools secretary, revealed this month that he will be recommending tougher penalties for those parents who try to cheat the system. These sanctions have not yet been decided upon, but Ed Balls has already stated that he will be backing the use of lotteries to allocate some school places, and will also be recommending that twins should be entitles to go to the same school, even when places are scarce.

It seems to me that a better option than penalising parents who are only trying to do the best for their children would be to ensure that all schools are of a high standard, so that every child gets a good education.