Male pupil in tears because of an error (9,6)
I believe the answer is:
schoolboy howler
'tears because of an error' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'male pupil in' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'school boy' (schoolboy is a kind of male).
'pupil in' becomes 'howler' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'schoolboy'+'howler'='SCHOOLBOY HOWLER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for schoolboy howler that I've seen is " One could make his teacher laugh".)