Teenagers, beware - if u txt yr xms, u fail

As if proof were needed that modern teenagers are more interested in sending text messages and watching soap operas than swotting for their school spelling tests, it has been provided by this year's GCSE English exams.

Not only were the entries riddled with "fashionable errors" such as "gonna" and "a lot", according to Anne Barnes, a senior examiner in the subject. They also featured phrases such as "I will always be there for you" and "I was well bored" that could have come straight from an EastEnders script.

In an article for yesterday's Times Educational Supplement, Mrs Barnes, a former general secretary of the National Association of Teachers of English, said one candidate even wrote his answers in text message form.

The Department for Education and Skills had no doubt about its verdict on text-message answers: U-fail! A spokesman said: "We don't think there is a place for this kind of slang in exam papers and we would rather see pupils err on the side of traditional grammar."