One of my work colleagues has just been through a rough time in school. Whilst she was cleaning her desk of papers and rubbish she threw away a small and dilapidated pamphlet of Arabic writing, assuming it to be some old photocopied homework or reading exercise: it turned out to be from The Koran.

Even though the teacher does not speak Arabic and even though the pages were immediately taken from the bin, rumours started to spread like the proverbial wildfire, and parents were informed by rumour-bloated children.

Some parents kept their children away from lessons as a protest, and Naged (the assistant headmaster) was apparently rung up at all times of the night by irate parents. The teacher has been feeling generally shite for about two weeks now, although the ripples from the recent event have subsided.

I have some more respect fro Naged after this. The slew of telephone conversations he has had to endure must have worn him down and disrupted family life, but he has stuck by the teacher and sorted things out. The kind of thing a real headmaster does.