The late David Critchley, a senior civil servant for many years, once compared the Department of Education to the Kremlin.

A more apt comparison these days might be with the Cretan Labyrinth from Greek mythology. In the middle of the Labyrinth resided the Minotaur, a part human and part bull monster which required the regular sacrifice of Athenian youths. The Minotaur was killed by Theseus, who used a thread to find his way back out of the Labyrinth when he was done.

Too often, Ministers, civil servants, teachers and ordinary people enter the education system full of hope for the children of Bermuda, only to have those hopes and dreams consumed by the monster at its heart.

Now, it would appear, Mark Byrne, the first chairman of the post-Hopkins Report Education Board, has joined the long list of sacrifices.

That's a shame, because in his short time as chairman, Mr. Byrne got some things done, for which he deserves credit.

That he was also frustrated is no surprise. Public education in Bermuda is a network of warring fiefdoms and "stakeholders", often operating at cross-purposes and too often not acting in the best interests of the children and parents they are supposed to serve.

It is also clear that Mr. Byrne – despite the clear recommendation of the Hopkins Report – could not prevent the bureaucracy's ability to continuously expand or to block initiatives.

Nor does the Ministry work like a business, where, in theory anyway, an all-powerful chief executive officer demands that something happens and it does. This may be where Mr. Byrne went wrong, and it was at least in part where the chairman of the Interim Education Board, Philip Butterfield, did.

Instead, education demands being able to work with the different groups and bring them around to your point of view, or at least to a consensus. This is not simple and requires endless patience, something that is hard to summon when trying to turn around a system described as being on the brink of meltdown.

But it can be done, and perhaps Darren Johnston, the new chairman and an exceedingly able businessman, will be the one to get it done.

If not, to extend (if not to exhaust) the labyrinth metaphor, he will be another victim of the Minotaur at the centre of the education labyrinth. Or will he be Bermuda's Theseus who slays the Minotaur and gets Bermuda's education system on the right track?