Lear turns out to be comedy of errors

[Published on 13 June, 1998]

British students found to their horror that they had spent two years
studying the wrong play when their examination paper had no questions on
Shakespeare's epic tragedy King Lear.

Bradford Grammar School, whose former pupils include painter David Hockney
and former Labour minister Denis Healey, discovered its curriculum error and
hastily rang the examination board.

A teacher mistakenly taught the pupils King Lear instead of three other
Shakespeare plays which were on the syllabus.

The headmaster, Mr Stephen Davidson, said the teacher was "absolutely
devastated".

A spokesman for the examination board said: "It will have been a stressful
time for the students and we will do everything we can to make sure that they
are not disadvantaged by a mistake that was not their fault."