Now that a new scholastic year has started, it is appropriate for some teachers in government schools to take a reality check and realise that the decline in the use of correct grammar is quite alarming.

The amount of students who perpetually say or, more usually, write “the company are” rather than “the company is” is particularly galling.

A few days ago, for example, a representative of a respectable company tried to demonstrate a new computer program when, all of a sudden, he came at a loss when he could not understand why the system underscored certain things in green because he did not know what was grammatically wrong with them.

Similarly, why are students and Facebook contributors using yourself, myself and ourselves instead of you, me and us?

I agree that the world has moved on from the days of impeccable grammar and getting detention for improper use of a semicolon. However, basic rules and punctuation should be a focus at school although, in these days of social media and digital communication, the need to dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’ is long gone.

Unfortunately, in our schooldays there was little else to focus on.