The following apology was printed in The Observer's For the record column, Sunday October 26 2003
This article named the professor of education and English at the Institute of Education, London University as Gunter Kreff. He is Gunter Kress. Apologies. Literary classics should be radically represented with a gripping modern twist along the lines of the BBC's Canterbury Tales to help turn boys on to literature, according to education advisers.

Shakespeare's Henry IV Part One, for example, could be transformed for teenage boys into a contemporary action drama about a stricken state fighting terrorists, and The Tempest could become a modern morality tale about refugees and asylum seekers.

A growing number of academics, alarmed at the lack of boys studying English Alevel, are demanding a fundamental reappraisal of the way classic texts are taught.

They say the subject has to be defeminised'. So ingrained is the 'laddish' culture in comprehensive schools that boys are rejecting English A-levels as 'sissy' and only studied by girls

Gunter Kress, professor of education and English at London University's Institute of Education, say conventional novels and plays cannot compete with the fastmoving medium of television or the internet. 'There is confusion about what English is for. What is it doing? Why should boys and girls be interested in these texts?'

Figures reveal that just over 23,000 boys took English A-level this year, compared with 55,451 girls. Gordon Stobart, an education expert based at the University of London, said: 'There is a real question of feminisation with the subject. Boys prefer writing styles similar to comics, a stop-start style and manuals rather than a long-discursive narrative. We are not asking enough radical questions about what English literature really is.'

The BBC's recent adaptation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which drew audiences of more than seven million, has hardened opinion on what can can be achieved with a fresh approach to classic texts.

Supporters of the new approach also point to the recent ITV adaptation of Othello with the 'Moor of Venice' recast as John Othello, Britain's first black commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

Janette Elwood, professor of education at Queens University, Belfast, said rewriting classical text should be considered: 'Look at Chaucer's Wife of Bath adaptation. You always get reports of dumbing down but we also need to be looking at a more creative way of teaching and assessing it.'

The Education Minister Charles Clarke has called crisis meetings with English teaching experts to discuss flaws in national tests for 14-year-olds. Ministers now recognise that the compulsory Shakespeare element of the Key Stage 3 tests are turning boys off English.

Bethan Marshall, lecturer in English at King's College, London and a specialist in the teaching of Shakespeare, said: 'Shakespeare is bloody, violent and messy: just the sort of thing boys like. But the rigidity of the way it is taught at Key Stage 3 leaves no space at all for the imagination. The endless close analysis of texts just puts boys off.'

But she said the rewriting of Shakespeare was not the answer. 'What is the point of reading Shakespeare if not for the language? The plots of Shakespeare are highly melodramatic - the subtlety of expression is what you want students to grasp.'

The lack of boys studying English A-level has created a vicious cycle where fewer study the subject at university, making them less likely to become English teachers at secondary school where male role models are desperately needed.

A report by the inspection service Ofsted concluded: 'Boys are good at fancy footwork but often wildly overestimate their ability and believe they will succeed without expending any energy.'

Some schools have attempted to overcome 'laddish' underachievement, with inspectors noting that close monitoring can provide boys with an 'excuse to succeed'. They also found that boys perform in schools that have a 'non-macho' culture and respond to teaching that involves good use of humour.