March 5, 1985

THE bacteria called gonococci are among the most feared agents of human infection. They cause gonorrhea and, through that sexually transmitted disease, produce an immense amount of human misery including pain, social stigma, sterility in men, infertility and other serious gynecologic problems in women, and sometimes permanent harm to newborn infants. Scientists have been trying to develop a vaccine against the gonococcus for at least a quarter of century, and today the work is at a more advanced stage than ever before. Research at many medical centers has produced a great deal of new information on the nature and behavior of these bacteria.

JOYCE R. COPPIN, a school district superintendent in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, where she began teaching 27 years ago in an elementary school, recently ran into one of her former pupils while visiting a school. ''He told me he had just brought his granddaughter to school,'' Mrs. Coppin said of the man, now in his middle 30's. ''Not his daughter, but his granddaughter.'' The obstacles to education in an impoverished area like Bedford-Stuyvesant were symbolized for Mrs. Coppin by that encounter. The cycle of teen- age parenthood and the lack of support for children that often accompanies it have led many educators to conclude that the best way to help these children learn is to teach them to take a major share of the responsibility for their own educations.

All tariffs between the United States and Israel would be eliminated within 10 years under an agreement the two countries have just concluded - the first free-trade pact that Washington has reached with any country, Administration trade officials said today. President Reagan will formally submit the accord to Congress on Tuesday, and most legislative analysts expect relatively easy and quick approval - before the summer. Israel sought the agreement as a means to spur economic development and to cement both economic and political ties with Washington. A Further Refinement For the United States it represents a further refinement of the use of trade to help countries that it considers strategically, and politically, important.

Textron Inc. today put up for sale its Bell Helicopter subsidiary, a mainstay of the conglomerate for two decades. B.F. Dolan, president of Textron, which is based in Providence, R.I., said the offer was part of an effort to raise $1 billion from divestitures to reduce debt incurred in the $1.4 billion purchase in January of the Avco Corporation, a major supplier to the military, based in Greenwich, Conn. ''Bell Helicopter has long been an integral part of Textron, and this has been a difficult decision to make,'' Mr. Dolan said. ''We have decided to pursue the sale of Bell because the sale would generate significant cash for debt reduction.''

An obituary yesterday of Sarah G. Blanding, a former president of Vassar College, incorrectly identified the British economist Harold J. Laski, with whom she studied. Mr. Laski was an assistant to Clement R. Attlee when Mr. Attlee (not Mr. Laski) was Winston S. Churchill's Deputy Prime Minister, from 1942 to 1945.