The rising popularity of text messaging on mobile phones poses a threat to writing standards among Irish schoolchildren, an Irish education commission says.

The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after reviewing last year's exam performance by 15-year-olds.

"The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates," the report said, according to Wednesday's Irish Times.

"Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing."

The report laments that, in many cases, candidates seemed " undulyreliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary."

In 2003, Irish 15-year-olds were among the top 10 performers in an international league table of literacy standards compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

爱尔兰某教育委员会称，手机短信的日益普及对爱尔兰学生的书写规范造成了威胁。

爱尔兰国家考试委员会在针对去年15岁学生考试成绩的评论报告中称，语法和标点错误频频出现，已成为一个严重的问题。

据周三的《爱尔兰时报》消息，这份报告中称，“手机的出现和手机短信日益成为一种流行的交流方式对书写规范造成了不良影响，这在考生的答卷中得到了证明。”

“发手机短信常用语音输入法，很少或根本不用标点，这对传统的书写规范造成了威胁。”

报告指出，在很多情况下，考生“过度使用短句和简单的时态，所用的词汇也很有限。”

2003年，爱尔兰15岁年龄组的学生在经合组织读写规范国际大赛中跻身十强。