Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, the head of Britain's top private schools organisation predicted today.

Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said "Matrix-style" technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.

He told the Times Educational Supplement: "It's a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge."

Pupils could seen have lessons, and even foreign languages, downloaded directly into their brains, just like in the Matrix

Mr Parry, a former Rear Admiral, spent three years determining the future strategic context for the military in a senior role at the Ministry of Defence.

He is now preparing the ISC's 1,300 private schools, which collectively teach half a million children, for a high-tech future.

He told the TES that the Keanu Reeves thriller may not look like science fiction in 30 years' time.

"Within 30 years, sitting down and learning something will be a thing of the past," Mr Parry said.

"I think people will be able to directly access, Matrix-style, all the vocabulary you need for a foreign language, leaving you just to clear up the grammar."

In the film, The Matrix, characters could have all manner of information, skills and languages downloaded directly into their brains in a matter of seconds.