The teaching of literacy in middle and secondary schools needs to be improved, Education Minister Terry Lister admitted yesterday. Mr. Lister said primary school pupils were performing well in literacy tests but added: ?In the middle schools and senior schools it starts to fall apart.

?Whilst we are pleased with the progress we are making in primary, we are putting a focus on middle. We believe if we can get the middle school to work it?s all going to work,? Mr. Lister explained.

He said a ?reading counts? programme was being piloted at Sandys Secondary Middle School at the moment, where students? literacy was being tested and observed. It is likely the scheme will be expanded in September. ?I want to measure how good we are by how good the students at the bottom perform,? said Mr. Lister. ?If we can keep raising the bottom we are going to keep raising the whole thing.?

The comments come days after a report on literacy found that a third of young black males were deemed to be at risk when it came to everyday literacy skills. Premier Alex Scott told a press conference that he had tasked Mr. Lister with fixing the problem and had asked him to set a date and time when the Government could declare that every public school graduate could read.

Mr. Lister told : ?When people say ?everyone reading? we have to accept that those children with learning difficulties aren?t going to get to the same point as everybody else ? at that point in time.?

He added: ?The target when you put it on the basis of averages is always unrealistic. When you move it to individuals you have to have realistic targets. You can?t expect the people at the bottom to perform at the average level. The question is, (for) those that can?t reach it, do we have a plan for them that?s acceptable??

He said the Government had a literacy programme which constantly aimed to raise standards in schools and that Individual Education Plans were being used to help the majority of students reach the right literacy level for them.

He said the remaining students ? those with learning difficulties ? would be kept moving at a pace that was acceptable for them.

?Eventually the goal is to ensure that all the students can reach that point where through their Individual Education Plans they have sufficient skills to survive and thrive in the community,? he said.

Mike Charles, general secretary of Bermuda Union of Teachers, would not comment on the Minister?s remarks or on what should be done in schools to improve literacy.

He said: ?Discussions have gone back and forth on this whole situation. At this point in time I really wouldn?t like to comment on what should be done or what shouldn?t be done.?