UNIVERSITIES NEED TO PREPARE STUDENTS FOR LIFE - AND YES THAT MEANS LEARNING TO SPELL

JUST when you think the wokery couldn’t get any worse we hear that Hull University is refusing to mark students down for poor grammar because it’s “elitist” and “discourages disadvantaged students from poor performing schools.”

Students, some might say, who shouldn’t be at university at all because they’re simply not bright enough – but I don’t think we’re allowed to say that any more. Hull reckons that “good English” is a “North European white, male, elite thing.” Eh?

I’m sorry these people are idiots and shouldn’t be let anywhere near our teenagers who will leave university dumber than when they arrived thanks to a bunch of no-mark lecturers too lazy, too stupid, too uninspired to do what they’re actually paid for i.e. teach young people. It’s not “inclusive” or “diverse” to allow kids to go out into the world unable to spell or write the English language.

And being poor doesn’t prevent kids from learning how to spell. I grew up on a council estate in a mining village outside Newcastle and I learned how to spell because my teachers told me I had to. Simple.

Yet this year 200,000 kids will arrive at secondary school unable to read or write which is a shocking dereliction of duty on the part of teachers. If universities really want to take care of disadvantaged youngsters then prepare them for life. Show them how to compete alongside the advantaged kids. Don’t “steal” their university fees and tell them it’s OK to be illiterate because it isn’t!