Education activist Myron Piper has called Education Minister El James’s leadership “weak and ineffective” after principals walked out on a meeting with Education Commissioner Wendy McDonell.

Mr. Piper, speaking on behalf of the Bermuda Democratic Alliance, also said the Ministry as a whole is ineffective.

“I find it extraordinary that teachers and principals have sat idly by for so long while the Ministry used them like ping pong balls, constantly shifting positions without purpose, bouncing from one idea to another, yet never consummating any effective change.

“How many children have we lost in this long arduous process at the hands of an ineffective Ministry? A Ministry which has failed miserably at every juncture of its existence since the Hopkins Report.

“I think it is time when people like Wendy McDonell, who was part of the old regime identified in the Hopkins Report as being secretive, lacking transparency and should be disbanded to go, along with Minister James who has shown weak and ineffective leadership.”

Mr. Piper also questioned how much failure is acceptable and claimed the Ministry doesn’t have a plan.

“Government’s inability to be responsive and show responsible leadership has created an atmosphere of hysteria. This has spewed forth a plethora of ideas and ideology based on panic, self preservation and self enrichment from all quarters.

“This is evident by the fact that the principals are now telling Government that they will vet their proposals. The principals are trying to assure parents that they will see that their children’s interests are taken care of.

“The only group in my opinion that have that right are the parents themselves. They are the only stakeholders that have no conflict of interests.

“Parents have to grab the bull by the horn here and take control of and protect the interests of their children.”

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons agreed with the ASP demanding a detailed proposal from the Ministry of Education on possible school closures.

He said: “The ASP is absolutely right to ask the Minister for a comprehensive proposal which lays out the rationale for primary school closures and his intentions.

“As we stated last week, we need to hear how the Minister’s closure proposals fit into a broader education reform plan and to share that information with the key stakeholders— principals, teachers, parents, students and the broader community.

“The consistent lack of transparency from the Ministry is not acceptable. Public education direction is too important to young Bermudians to be dictated by a few without full consultation.

“The bottom line must be how these proposals will improve the classroom value for our students. Children in the public system shouldn’t get short shrift because of poor management by Government.

“We believe that children in the public system deserve as good an education as those whose parents can afford to send them to private school.

Mr. Gibbons also said Mr. James needs to tell the public what other measures the Ministry considered to cut spending besides closing primary schools, what steps has the Ministry taken to cut waste within the public system, where is the Ministry in regard to Professor Hopkin’s recommendation to “radically reform the Ministry of Education” and what cost savings that can be made within the Ministry administration as opposed to at a school level and what percentage of the $128.4 million budgeted in 2009/10 is the Minister attempting to cut.