Dear Editor,

Have you and your readers become aware of the appalling decline in spelling? Shop signs, notices, bulletins etc all quite often carry their fair share of misspellings. But the piece de resistance must surely be the bloomer seen recently on RTE's coverage of the pay dispute involving staff in the Department of Education in Athlone.

File pictures have been shown of a pallet of exam papers, bearing the words "Art exams, HIGHER papers." Surely someone in RTE or the Department of Education should have noticed the blatant error.

It is difficult to inculcate correct spelling in our young people, but our task is even more onerous when this kind of mistake is shown nationally and emanates from our Department of Education.

Perhaps a contribution from the requested pay rise might be directed towards the purchase of spelling books.

Yours,

"Drishane", Rosses Point Road, Ballincar, Sligo.