Was anyone in Bermuda surprised by the findings of the Score Report to the Minister of Education? I think not. We have read enough reports to know that public education has been in poor health for decades. Despite all these documents and a huge amount of energy thrown at the problem, we seem not to have made very much progress towards fixing the system’s shortcomings.

I don’t think that means that those who have been education ministers have been ducking responsibility or not paying attention. It’s just that this is a big, multifaceted problem. Sometimes it seems when you try to tackle one part of it, you aggravate other parts.

The minister, Wayne Scott, released the Score report as quickly as he could, fearing that if it was leaked, it might cause greater concern than if he was able to help people to interpret it. The release came as parents were registering their children for the next school year, causing the Shadow Minister of Education and Training, Lovitta Foggo, to describe his press conference as “foolhardy, reckless and irresponsible”, despite the minister being caught between a rock and a hard place — he had no choice.

After the minister announced the possibilities that Score identified for dealing with our declining public school population, staff and graduates of each of the schools identified as candidates for closure were quick to protest that their particular school should be left alone, despite the substantial contribution that closure may make to improving the educational experience for all children ... and to helping with the country’s economic problems.

After the economy, education is probably the most complex and most difficult challenge we face. It would help a lot if Bermudians saw the situation in that light and the Score report as an excellent opportunity to help us to meet that challenge.

We have to give praise to the minister for three things: first, he used skilled Bermudians to write the report, rather than bringing in yet another expert from abroad. It will be evident to all who read the document that the Score team were equal to the task they were given.

Second, he did not try to keep the report secret, as has happened often in the past with the delivery of bad news. He released it quickly in the knowledge that these are Bermuda’s problems, not just those of the Ministry of Education. In making sure stakeholders have an opportunity to read and digest it quickly, he is hoping that it will be a report that Bermudians will embrace, and not a report that various interest groups will fight over.

With the possibility of school closures, for example, he announced what the possibilities were so that those who have an interest can help him to make his decisions in a thoughtful and informed way, not as an exercise in picking the solution that will offend the smallest number of people.

And third, I am greatly encouraged that the minister has not, as have so many before, tried to learn about and to solve all of education’s problems at once.

They teach you in mathematics and other disciplines that when you have a large and complex problem to solve, you should break it into smaller problems and solve them one at a time. That’s the only way we’re going to efficiently fix our public education system.

Well done, minister.

• Georgia Marshall is the government spokeswoman for legal affairs and education in the Senate