Teachers have undergone two days of training on a new standards-based grading system.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education said that staff from public primary schools and middle schools had participated in sessions the past two days.

The training happened after Kalmar Richards, the education commissioner, told teachers and principals last week that progress reports for pupils had to be issued by the end of the month.

Ms Richards said that a second progress report would be sent to parents in April, with a final report card in June.

The ministry spokeswoman added: “BUT reps, BPSU principal reps and other key stakeholder groups were involved in face-to-face discussions about grading and reporting as stated in the letter.”

Ms Richards said in her letter that training and technical support, as well as faster-functioning for the computer program PowerSchool would be provided.

She said: “The Department of Education will provide the professional learning, a team of teachers will provide technical support and our IT team has put a solution in place to address technology concerns related to length of time that it takes for PowerSchool to respond when grades are being entered.”

The spokeswoman could not confirm how many teachers would be on the team that would provide technical support.

She added that the IT team working on PowerSchool had “made the internet connection perform more efficiently in the short term”.

The spokeswoman said the long-term goal was increase internet speeds at all schools, in line with the Plan 2022 for the education system.

Ms Richards said in her letter that the transition of the Bermuda public school system to a standards-based education system would happen “over the next few years”.

The spokeswoman added: “We have developed a plan that involves a number of actions and we have factored in the amount of time that it will take to fully achieve those actions and transform the system.”

Some training in the new grading system was given to teachers and principals last month after a request from the Bermuda Union of Teachers.

Teachers have been deadlocked with the Government over a series of problems, including standards-based grading, which the teaching union said had added stress to already overburdened staff.

Shannon James, the president of the BUT, admitted last week that not all primary school and middle school teachers had uploaded grades to PowerSchool because of confusion about the introduction of standards-based grading.

But Mr James added that teachers had kept hard copies of pupil grades.

Mr James did not respond to questions by press time yesterday.

Ed Ball, the general secretary of the Bermuda Public Services Union, was asked yesterday whether the union supported the dates outlined by Ms Richards in her letter.

He said: “Until there is a clear mandate and instructions from the principals, the dates are as the commissioner has stipulated.”