The British Government has decided educators can stop teaching students the "i before e except after c" spelling rule because there are too many exceptions to the rule in modern English. Support for Spelling guidelines recently released by the Department for for Children, Schools and Families, states:

 "The i before e except after c rule is not worth teaching. It applies only to words in which the ie or ei stands for a clear /ee/ sound and unless this is known, words such as sufficient, veil and their look like exceptions. There are so few words where the ei spelling for the /ee/ sound follows the letter c that it is easier to learn the specific word: receive, conceive, deceive (+ the related words receipt, conceit, perceive and ceiling."

The problem with this statement is, as was pointed out in the comments on the publication, that the rule is incomplete. Certainly "i before e except after c" is the portion of the rule most commonly recalled. It is not, however, the whole rule. The whole rule is:

"I before e except after c or sounding like a as in weigh or neigh."

When the whole rule is considered, it applies to far more words than the Support for Spelling publication implies. In fact, two of the exceptions cited as reasons for discontinuing the teaching of the rule, are already covered by it. 

Of course, the widespread use of spellcheck both in and out of the classroom raises questions about the need for spelling rules at all, given how few people actually write without using a computer or other word processing application these days. Spelling rules obviously do not apply to text messages or instant messages, where brevity rules.