Teachers and principals should run Bermuda’s education system but be fired for poor performance, according to economist Craig Simmons.

The Bermuda College lecturer said mistakes made by the Ministry of Education had left many people stuck at the bottom of the social ladder without the specialised skills to improve their position.

He urged the Government to put decisions in the hands of teachers, and said firing them for poor performance would give them “skin and soul in the game”.

Mr Simmons added that too much emphasis had been placed on attracting investment from overseas when the best way to improve Bermuda’s economy was to develop its people.

He told The Royal Gazette: “In addition to finding ways for the rich to pay more in taxes and for the poor to pay less, improving the education poor people receive is the surest way to improve social mobility and raise living standards of the bottom 50 per cent.

“Way too much attention has been paid to attracting foreign capital to our shores when the most important factor in sustaining long-term economic growth is a college-educated individual with highly specialised skills, whether those skills be in insurance-linked securities or welding or culinary arts.”

There has been a call from several people for politics to be taken out of education in recent months.

These included Wayne Scott, one of 13 ministers in the past 19 years, who said in March: “Politics gets in the way and it is a disservice to our children.”

Mr Simmons said: “Unfortunately, public education is built on a highly centralised model. The Ministry of Education decides what is best for all public schools and then dictates to principals and teachers how that decision is to be carried out.

“This is a high-risk strategy. If the Ministry of Education gets its strategy wrong, as it has in the past, then the consequences are catastrophic failure.

“I would like the ministry to adopt a more decentralised approach by putting the decisions of how to best educate our children in the hands of those best qualified to do so — principals and teachers.

“Principals should hire and fire teachers and both should be fired for poor performance. This approach forces educators to have real skin and soul in the game of education.”

Mr Simmons also spoke about the issue of inequality, which was one of the defining themes of the General Election in July.

The PLP swept to a landslide 24-12 victory after pledging to bridge the wealth gap between what it described as the “two Bermudas”.

Mr Simmons said inequality would always exist because people are rewarded depending on their skill levels and luck, but that people should be rewarded fairly, based on their ability, effort and need.

He said: “I don’t know of anybody who is arguing that every person or household should earn the same.

“People generally understand the need for incentives that will encourage and reward effort. In this sense, people prefer inequality over equality. I think the real issue is over unfairness. Given that people understand that ability, effort and need vary between individuals, then it follows that a fair distribution of income and wealth should consider these differences.

“Inequality becomes a problem when people know that it exists. In other words, I think inequality is bad only when I discover my colleague is earning more than me. Otherwise, I would be quite happy with my lot in life. In this sense, ignorance is bliss or, what is the same thing, everything is relative, even when it shouldn’t be.”

• Mr Simmons is conducting a series of Saturday lectures titled Basic Economics at Bermuda College, until October 7. For more information, e-mail cfs@college.bm