4 AUGUST 1967, Page 3

Black mark

CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS

The parents of a primary school in Berkshire are demanding the dismissal of the headmaster because of the failure of their children in the eleven-plus examinations.

Say not the answer naught availeth, The paper and the mark's an ass. The candidate both flunks and faileth, But who is it who did not pass?

If masters croak, must parents holler?

Examiners may rule it thus.

His comrades praise e'en now the scholar Because he failed eleven-plus.

For, though the tired lad's vain disaster Seems now to end in total black, Is failure vain, if the headmaster,

When pupils plough, should get the sack?