School spelling lessons "unnecessary" in tech age, says professor
Teaching spelling and grammar in schools has become "a bit unnecessary" because children can correct errors on their mobile phones, a top academic has claimed.
Sugata Mitra, professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, said the basic linguistic skills taught in schools were "no longer essential" and it was a "mistaken notion" to assume that 'text-speak' was an incorrect use of language.
He told the Times Educational Supplement, said: "...they are skills that were very essential maybe 100 years ago but they are not right now.
"Firstly, my phone corrects my spelling so I don’t really need to think about it and, secondly, because I often skip grammar and write in a cryptic way."
Joe Walsh, from the National Association for the Teaching of English, told the paper spelling and grammar were "just as relevant today as they were 100 years ago".