Offering a grammar lesson guaranteed to make any English teacher cringe, US President George W Bush told a group of New York school kids: "Childrens do learn."

Mr Bush made his latest grammatical slip-up at a made-for-TV event where he urged Congress to reauthorise the No Child Left Behind Act, the centerpiece of his education policy, as he touted a new national report card on improved test scores.

The event drew New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings plus teachers and about 20 fourth and fifth graders from the PS 76 school.

During his first presidential campaign, Mr Bush - who promised to be the "education president" - once asked: "Is our children learning?"

Mr Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said.

The White House opted to clean up Bush's diction in the official transcript.

- Reuters