THE PRINCE of Wales yesterday added his voice to a growing clamour over standards in British state schools, denouncing "trendy" teaching methods that had produced "a somewhat failed system".
Condemning "fatuous arguments" between so called progressives and traditionalists, he called for a "grown up" consensus approach which recognised the need for some kind of disciplined framework to life.
In that sense I believe that education needs to rediscover those important features which have been abandoned in the last 30 or 40 years out of a fashionable approach," he said in a BBC television interview. "And I don't believe it's served young people well at all, in fact I believe that in many ways my Trust has been picking up the pieces of a somewhat failed system.
The Prince's Trust, which now raises £20 million a year, had helped half a million young people, enabling many to transform their lives "with a new vision of themselves," he said.
Teaching union leaders described the Prince's intervention as, at best backward looking and at worst, "stupid statements" made by a man whose failure in marriage set a bad example.
But the schools standards minister, Mr Stephen Byers, accused teaching unions of "running away from reality" and treating education as a "secret garden".
The Prince of Wales was also under attack over his personal life on two fronts yesterday - a church leader called on him to stop his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles or give up the succession, and it was claimed that the Princess Royal thinks he should never have divorced.
According to a new biography of Princess Anne, she believes the Prince's and the Duke of York's divorces were "inexplicable and unnecessary".
Author Brian Hoey says she believes that her brothers failed to act in accordance with her golden rule, not asking themselves "Is it good for the Queen?"
The hook, Anne - The Private Princess Revealed, also says that Anne regarded her own divorce from Captain Mark Phillips in 1992 as being different from those of her brothers, as her distance from the succession made it "merely a personal matter".
Asked about the book, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "There is no question of him (Mr Hoey) being authorised to talk to people in connection with this book.
"He was never given any permission or endorsement to talk to her friends. Any conclusion is his own.
Meanwhile, the Rev David Streeter, director of the Church Society, the senior evangelical body of the Church of England, called on Charles either to give up his "adulterous relationship" with Camilla Parker Bowles or abdicate his claim to the throne.
Charles would have to make this personal sacrifice if he wanted to remain in public life - or he should follow in the steps of Edward VIII and give up the throne for love, said Mr Streeter.
"I think in actual fact the prince has a great deal going for him. He has a tremendous concern for the welfare of this country," Mr Streeter told GMTV's Sunday Programme.
"His great problem, I think is that what he has to face up to is the fact that the monarchy is greater than Prince Charles and this country is greater than the monarchy.
"I feel he has got to sacrifice Camilla Parker Bowles if he is going to convince the public of his ability to lead this country.
"We are not going to have a confessed adulterer as Supreme Head of the Church of England."
Mr Streeter said that although Charles had confessed his adultery, he had not repented it, causing "considerably problems of how to avoid a constitutional crisis