Thaindian News

London, Oct 4 (ANI): Primary school staff in Britain are to be given English lessons because their accents, poor grammar and use of slang are hampering the education of pupils.

Ofsted inspectors decided to carry out the lessons for staff after two teaching assistants at Trosnant Junior School in Havant, near Portsmouth, were found to have a weak grasp of written and spoken English.

They claim the assistants’ strong accents and use of slang were hampering children’s learning.

“Adults do not always demonstrate grammatical accuracy in speaking and writing,” the Daily Mail quoted their report as stating.

It cited the phrase “I likes football” as an example, and gave the school 12 months to improve.

Now, a consultant has been drafted in to teach staff to use ‘the Queen’s English in the classroom’.

Headmaster Jim Hartley admitted there was a problem with the use of regional dialect, known as ‘Pompey slang’, in the classroom.

“This is not denigrating the Pompey accent or dialect - we are all proud of where we come from,” he said.

“I accept however that bad grammar is not acceptable in the classroom, which is why we have taken the inspectors’ criticisms constructively,” he added.

A building society has introduced grammar lessons for staff after senior executives found recent graduates could not write properly.

“Youngsters cannot be expected to improve their English if they are set a bad example by the adults who are supposed to be teaching them,” Nick Seaton, of the Campaign for Real Education, stated.

Leeds Building Society has recruited a retired teacher to introduce a ‘more formal and consistent approach’ to writing. (ANI)