1 Which trade unionist said: “The teaching profession ought to recognise a victory when it sees one”?

2 Who failed to recognise it until December?

3 Who claimed pacifying teachers was never in his mind?

4 Who told the party faithful: “Teachers should be marking homework, they should not be doing it”?

5 Which baroness told which union baron: “They say we’ve been snuggling up together. I do not know what it is doing for your reputation but I can tell you it is playing havoc with mine”?

6 What was the occasion of their courtship?

7 Which historian claimed the Romans, Saxons and Vikings were Europeans, but not British, and why?

Picture gallery

Of the eight people pictured right:

8 Who predicted: “The Conservative revolution begun in 1979 is an exceptional one, and it will probably be some years into the next century before it is complete”?

9 Who said: “Teaching is the fundamental profession. There is no more important job that can be done in opening the understanding and appreciation of life for our people. Let me say on behalf of everyone in our country a big thank you to all teachers”?

l0 Who said: “Go to any other country and when you have got an A-level you have bought it or because you were a friend of the minister”?

11 Whose threat to seize control angered the Church?

12 Who said: “All education secretaries come to a sticky end”?

13 Which founder of the GCSE died?

14 Who said: “I told the truth and the truth is often embarrassing”?

15 Who urged teachers to “listen to the ghosts of the Holocaust and teach them in schools”?

Choice standards

16 Whose choice was a snub for political correctness?

17 Who said: “I have no problem at all comparing schools. I think it is entirely sensible and natural”?

18 Who said: “It would be intolerable were the Labour party to encourage the middle classes to elbow their way into the most popular schools”?

19 Who is Patrick Kilfoyle, and why did he make page 1 news?

20 Who was ordered back into schools after being excluded by Kenneth Clarke?

Moral maze

21 Who said: “The Jesuits flogged me from time to time. I remember it started because I had difficulties with the proof of the Second Theorem and so it went on”?

22 Which woman MP said: “Someone claimed changing the law would result in rapacious middle-aged homosexuals hanging around school gates, waiting to seduce young boys . . . No one seems equally bothered about rapacious middle-aged heterosexuals chasing young girls”?

23 What was the occasion of her remarks?

24 “Would teachers be expected to test every pupil before they started to see how sexually knowledgeable they are? The mind boggles.” What was David Hart, the headteachers’ leader, so flabbergasted about?

25 What did headteacher Jane Brown dismiss as a “blatantly heterosexual love story”?

26Who said: “If we had more organised team games in schools we could have fewer little thugs like those who murdered James Bulger out in the street”?

Sound bite

27 “Lucy assures John Major that she has a far better sense of direction than his Government at the moment and she is quite sure most heads of government have too.” Who is Lucy and to whom does she belong?

Quiz of the year: answers

Testing times: 1 Nigel de Gruchy, following publication of the Dearing Report in January. 2 Doug McAvoy, announcing a ballot on whether his union, the NUT, should end its boycott. 3 Sir Ron Dearing. 4 John Major, at the Tory party conference in Bournmouth. 5 Former education minister Baroness Blatch, Nigel de Gruchy. 6 The NASUWT conference at Easter. 7 Chris McGovern, the traditionalist, who criticised Dearing for too little emphasis on British history in his revised curriculum.

Picture gallery: 8 John Patten (picture C). 9 John Smith, Labour’s former leader (picture G). 10 Michael Portillo, on foreigners (picture A). 11 Ann Taylor, ex-Labour education spokeswoman, who threatened to return opted-out voluntary-aided schools as controlled schools (picture H). 12 Gillian Shephard (picture E). 13 Sir Keith Joseph, who died earlier this month (picture B) 14 Monika O’Neill, who won an industrial tribunal case that she was unfairly dismissed from her RE teaching job after becoming pregnant by a Catholic priest (picture D). 15 Steven Spielberg, after winning an Oscar for his film, Schindler’s List (picture F).

Choice and standards: 16 Labour leader Tony Blair, who wants to send his son eight miles from home to a GM school and said he would not be tied to what was “politically correct”. 17 Tony Blair. 18 Roy Hattersley. 19 Son of Peter Kilfoyle, Labour’s schools’ spokesman, whose Liverpool school applied to become selective after its admissions policy was criticised by the DFE. 2O HM Inspectorate, which has been told to help the beleaguered private inspection service meet its commitments in primary schools.

Moral maze: 21 John Patten, remembering the strict discipline of his own school days. 22 Edwina Currie. 23 The Commons debate on lowering the age of homosexual consent. 24 John Patten’s plans to stream pupils according to what they know about sex 25 Romeo and Juliet - after an offer to take her pupils to Covent Garden to see Prokofiev’s ballet. 26 Sports minister Iain Sproat.

Sound bite: 27 David Blunkett’s guide dog. Labour’s education spokesman was responding to John Major’s claim that European leaders could scarcely find their way to their parliaments with a guide dog.