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Teacher spots 18 grammatical errors in new Education Secretary’s statement

It has been a whirlwind week for Andrea Jenkyns. After showing her loyalty to a departing Boris Johnson, the MP was rewarded with a promotion to Cabinet – and celebrated her ascent by flipping-off the British public as she headed into Downing Street.

Who is the new Education Secretary? Andrea Jenkyns ‘taken to school’…

Alas, Jenkyns now finds herself as the Parliamentary-Under Secretary for Education. She assumed the role on Friday 8 July, and it has taken less than 48 hours for someone to take her to school.

An English teacher on Twitter has gone viral, for picking apart Jenkyns’ response to the middle-finger she flashed towards a crowd last week. In her statement, the new Education Secretary said she was targeted by a ‘baying mob’, and had reached ‘the end of her tether’.

“On Thursday afternoon, I went to Downing Street to watch the Prime Minister’s resignation speech. A baying mob outside the gates were insulting MPs on their way in as is sadly all too common.

“After receiving huge amounts of abuse from some people who were there over the years, and I have also had seven death threats in the last 4 years, two of which have been in recent weeks, and are currently being investigated by police, I had reached the end of my tether.”

“I responded and stood up for myself. Just why should anyone have to put up with this sort of treatment. I should have shown more composure, but am only human.”

Andrea Jenkyns

Teacher finds ‘litany of grammatical mistakes’ in minister’s statement

However, the educator who decided to review her statement chose VIOLENCE this weekend. At least 18 mistakes were flagged by this unimpressed English teacher. She graded the text with a D- and told Jenkyns to ‘take more care and attention’ next time.

Some of the mistakes identified include the following:

  • Missing words, incorrect tenses, and a false use of pluralisation all feature in the first paragraph.
  • Her inconsistent use of ‘numbers in text formats’ was also flagged.
  • The Education Secretary failed to add a question mark onto one of her musings.
  • Frequent omissions of key functional words are highlighted more than once.
  • You can see the corrections in all their glory HERE:
Tom Head

Hailing from Nottingham, Tom Head has had a journalism career that's taken him across the world. He spent five years as a political reporter in South Africa, specialising in the production digital content. The 30-year-old has two cats, a wonderful wife, and a hairline that's steadily making a retreat.

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