Over 45 percent of all students eligible to attend public schools in Bermuda are currently attending private or alternative schools ? the highest percentage of children not attending public schools in the world.

It?s also estimated that public education will cost an average of $16,100 per child per year, which is an increase of 37 percent since last year.

In his address to the House of Assembly on Friday night, Shadow Minister of Education Neville Darrell wanted to know whether Bermudians were getting value for money.

Mr. Darrell said the figure is calculated when the current expenditure for the Department of Education ? which is $105,224 ? is divided by the enrolment figure of more than 5,000.

?You come up with a base line cost per student of $16,100 plus,? he said.

?Let?s not act like all is well!? Mr. Darrell said, referring to the curriculum evaluation presented in the Budget this year.

According to this evaluation, which looked at how public school children ranked in reading, language and math skills compared to the United States, Mr. Darrell said Bermuda?s scores looked ?dismal?.

With a US norm of 50 percent, pupils at S1 level in Bermuda were only scoring 37.2 percent in reading, 36 percent for language and 27 percent in math for the 200002 school year ? with a slight increase in the 2003/2004 school year.

One solution, Mr. Darrell suggested, was participating in the programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) which was conducted under the auspices the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

He said the organisation carried out the trends in international mathematics and science study in 2003 recording progress of 15 years olds in more than 46 countries.

Mr. Darrell said the aim of the programme is to raise education standards worldwide and Bermuda could only benefit by preparing its public school pupils for the world.

Another study is planned for 2007.

?The world has changed dramatically and we are legislators must have clear, objective pictures of how our students are performing and how they are placed within the global community.

?We need to take seriously the issue of setting high standards in all our schools and expecting better results from all within the public school system,? he said.

Mr. Darrell also addressed the Budget allocation of more than $3 million towards training of staff.

He said this was over ten times the 2003/2004 allocation.

?The current Government committed itself to a programme of teacher certification together with an independent licensing authority some years back.

?We have heard nothing about this initiative for sometime now and we hope that some of this training allocation will be used to assist with this critical preparation of our teachers,? he said.

Teacher certification and licensing, he said, played an important role in the standardisation of teaching excellence in classrooms, improving students? abilities and performance and accelerating students learning rates ? a key component for evaluating more objective student performance and curricula delivery.

?I hope the Bermuda Union of Teachers is working with the Ministry of Education to ensure that all teachers are trained in the use of IT in the classroom as the Ministry has allocated $2.5 million for the acquisition of more computers for schools,? he said.

Mr. Darrell wanted to know how many teachers were currently trained to use IT in classrooms and what the current ratio of computers to students were at all levels in the public school system.

To much cheering and shouting in the House, Mr. Darrell said it was time for Government to provide an annual report profiling the performance of each of the schools within the public school system.

?The individual schools should be evaluated by objective educational performance tests, which among other things will evaluate student learning, teacher effectiveness and overall school performance,? he said.

Mr. Darrell said the Budget exercise pertaining to public education is primarily about the allocation of money and he wanted the exercise to be characterised by transparency and accountability.

He said pride and confidence were necessary ingredients in inspiring the public to view public education as the first choice for their children, but that it was not sufficient to inspire the level of confidence to actually motivate more parental decisions to continue enrolling their children in the system.