The Ministry of Education has clarified its position on plans to introduce character building programmes to the Island's schools following concerns and questions from the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT).

Union General Secretary Michael Charles said union executives had questioned how the good values lessons would be taught and how they would be incorporated into an already-packed curriculum.

Minister for Education and Development Paula Cox announced during her budget speech last week that the Ministry was looking to introduce the character building programme to schools in a bid to improve student behaviour and attitude.

She said it would sit alongside the current life skills programme already in schools, which teaches about the dangers of drugs.

However, Mr. Charles said the union had not been consulted and said there were many questions to be answered, such as how often the new programme would be taught, would teachers need additional training, and would children sit some kind of exam at the end of it.

He said: “We don't know what the Ministry has in mind as to how they are going to deliver this new character programme.

“There is already life skill lessons going on in all schools. We would like to know whether the new programme is going to be part of the curriculum, and whether we are going to put this in place and remove something else?

“The curriculum is already pretty full.”

But last night, senior education officer Joanne Smith shed more light on the initiative and said there was nothing to be concerned about.

She said the character building programme would be piloted in three volunteer primary schools from September, with a view to implementing it throughout the public system if it works.

And she said it would not be part of the curriculum, and would simply be something for each school to concentrate on as part of discussions or assembly.

Although the schools will be allowed to implement the programme how they saw fit, she said it was possible that the schools could each pick a theme to concentrate on for a month, such as good manners, how to be respectful, having a good attitude or maybe even consequences of bad behaviour.

“We are not asking schools or teachers to do it in their time,” said Ms Smith.

“We understand the curriculum is full and teachers don't have a lot of time, so we are not interested in adding anything else to their lot.

“A lot of schools are already doing things like this. What we are saying is maybe choose a good character trait to study each month in the assemblies or registration periods.