HAVING read an article on the news page of Wednesday's Telegraph about qualification standards for trainee teachers, I thumbed the page to find John Blunt's section.

Yes, sure enough, and to my expectations, there it was - the inevitable diatribe against the teaching profession.

Once again, Mr Blunt is beating the same well-worn drum about mis-use of the apostrophe.

He berates a teacher for writing about 'year 8's.'

May I ask Mr Blunt how, once one has decided to write a number in figures, rather than words, he would write the number?

The use of the apostrophe in this case, whether correct or incorrect, makes clearer the reading of the script as eights than 8s would do.

Incidentally, if Mr Blunt views misuse of the apostrophe as a sign of poor educational standards, I wonder what is his opinion of his colleague Brian Doogan?

This gentleman, writing on the sports page of the same edition, penned the sentence "Who says that the German's have no sense of humour?"

I rest my case.

E L CAMPBELL (Mr), Swan Farm Close, Lower Darwen.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.