GCSEs to punish poor spelling

For seven years, spelling, punctuation and grammar have been deemed less than essential in GCSE exams, but under rules set to be outlined in an education White Paper next week, pupils will lose as much as five cent of their marks in all subjects if they fall short with their written English.

The guidelines, which are being re-introduced after they were scrapped in 2003, are part of the Government's drive to ensure that young people leave school with adequate language skills for the workplace.

The move comes in response to employers' concerns that school-leavers are unable to write letters or compose emails.