This is the full text of the Budget speech by Renee Webb on education.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am grateful for the time that I will be allotted to speak on this important Head with respect to the Budget Debate. First of all, Mr. Chairman, I would like to compliment all of those, from the Minister on down to those out in the field, for trying to do whatever they can do to make Bermuda...the Bermuda public education system one second to none. So, I would compliment those who are trying, but I will say in my complimenting that what is being done in the Bermuda education system currently is clearly not enough.

Now, Mr. Chairman, if we look at what is in this Budget Debate and what is in Head 17 for the Education Department, we find a very disturbing trend that exists in Bermuda education today, and if Members have examined, or had the opportunity to examine...and even members of the public who've had the opportunity to examine what is contained in the Budget Debate with respect to education, we will find the following:

we will find that the cost of running the education system in Bermuda has continually gone up;

we will find that Government continues to give more money to education year-in and year-out;

we will find that, in spite of all of the money that the Government is giving to schools and to the education system and to the Department of Education, what we will find is that the performance of our public education system is declining;

if we look at the Curriculum Instructional Evaluation, if we talk to educators, we will find that what is happening in the education system is disturbing.

So, I do not want to stand up on the Floor of this House and make the country think that all is alive and well...as I heard one middle-school teacher say recently at a forum...in the education system in Bermuda, because it is not. It is extremely disturbing when you find that the number of teachers continues to go up every year; the number of Bermudians in the system has gone up; the number of foreigners is pretty stagnant but you will find that the student attendance is down. You will also find that 45% of our students, which is the official number put out by the Ministry, are not graduating from the system. Now, clearly, this is a problem. At what point do we recognise a problem? Are we going to wait until 90% fail before we say we have a problem with the education system in Bermuda?

We have a problem for a number of reasons. Number one: who is being held accountable? It seems as if every time I find myself speaking in this Honourable House, when we look at failures, when we look at systems that are not working, whether it be the fact that tourism is declining...no matter what it is...my question is always the same. Who is being held accountable, and how? And what systems are put in place to measure the accountability? I keep asking the same question over and over and I didn't hear the answer. I have not heard the answer. I want to know what the Education Officers are doing to hold the headmistresses accountable and headmasters...the few that there are if there are any. Who is holding the teachers accountable for this lack of performance? Who? I really would like an answer to that.

We know, in other countries, they have a system in place where every single school is measured. A parent can go online and look at the performance of the individual school that their child attends. We have shied away from this in Bermuda. We have people writing a curriculum...I don't know how long it takes to write a curriculum and I really don't know why, we in Bermuda, have to have a special curriculum for our school children when we know that there are methods that are true, tried, tested and are successful. What are we doing wasting money?

With respect to the certification of teachers, I remember we passed that in this Honourable House and said that teachers would be certified. How long does that take before every teacher in this country is certified...and licensed if you like...how long will that take? How long will we hold teachers accountable and make sure we have teachers who are qualified to teach our children? And what is happening...and if the truth be told and those teachers know it...the Education Officers know it...the headmasters and headmistresses know it...the truth is, we have too many mediocre teachers in the system and none of us want to stand up here and hold anybody accountable. And we'll just debate the Budget, we'll throw more money at it which is Bermuda's style...throw more money at it and say the money will fix it. Well, the money is not going to fix it, and neither is blaming the children because you hear, "oh, the children come from this type of home...". And it's true, you do have children who need extra help and, therefore, you put systems in place to help them; you put support staff in place. I mean, a ratio of 7:1 in terms of teacher/educator...7:1. I mean, that is amazing by any stretch of the imagination and we still accept the fact that our students, 45%, are not graduating and we think it's acceptable? Quite frankly, if I was in the education system I would feel ashamed of that fact. I would feel ashamed if I opened up a book and looked at the Curriculum Instruction Evaluation and saw that for ever year...I mean, if we look at, and compare, 2001...for those who want to follow it's on page 104B...B104...we will find, for example, that the reading is declining, in terms of the performance. And who are we measuring it against? Guess what? The U.S. norm. Everybody knows, worldwide, the U.S. education system is 25th if you compare it. It's not even in the top 25. We compare ourselves to America and our students can't even come up to America. When I was in school we never compared ourselves to America. It was impossible. You had to compare yourself to the UK or Canada, but America...everybody knows that America's education isn't something to measure by. And our students are not even reaching the American norm which we put at 50%...whatever that means...and we take that 50% and we measure our children. Well, if you look at it, you will find that, in the reading area, it's declining. Why? I have no idea. I would be interested to hear the excuses, like something's wrong with the children. There's nothing wrong with our children. I would venture to say there's something with the educator. That's what I would say. They can get offended, their feelings could get hurt...like we do in Bermuda...people will not say the truth. The truth is, we are failing our students in this country. That is the truth.

Now there are those who'll say...and I find this very, very odd...the private-school system which has almost 50% of our students, which again is an indictment on the public education system but, having said that also, it comes with a society that is economically advanced. People can afford to send their children to private school, therefore, they choose to. It is their right. Now, I've heard stories about parents who have two and three jobs to be able to send their children there. Clearly, for them, it's a priority. Maybe they forfeited buying a car this year and are driving the old one for another two years to send their children there. I don't know the reason but the point is they are sending their children there.

I want to know whenever we stand up and talk about budgets and education systems, why do we never talk about the private school system? Where are the measurement outputs for the private school system? How do they compare with the public school system? Are we a country that is so divided, even along education systems that we don't think that the private education system is important enough even to talk about? How is BHS, BI, Saltus, Warwick Academy, these home schools...what is the output measurement? Where is the performance measurements? How are the students doing there? There is a perception that all of the private-anything is doing better than the public-anything. I don't know if that's the case. I'm assuming...if we look at who's getting the scholarships, who's going away to university...clearly, that the private school system must be doing better.

Now, the answer will be for some, "Well, you know, they don't take a whole cross-section of children". That is not true. That is not true. They do take a whole cross-section of children, provided that the parents can pay. But we need to be able to compare. And, you know what, most teachers...I say, "Well, have you ever been to see what they're doing over in Saltus? Have you ever been to see what they're doing in private schools?" They will go to New Zealand, they will go to the U.S., they will go to Scotland, looking at what's happening there when they will not walk down the street to see what the private schools here are doing, wrong and right, and how we can incorporate it in the public school system. I find that very strange. I find that very strange. They come under the same Education Act and they should be held accountable. Where is the accountability? I have no idea and, somehow, we think that we have to get up here year on year and debate our education system as if the only education system is the public school one. Well, it isn't and the children who go to the private schools are just as important to this country as the public school system children are. So, I believe that public education is important...those will say, "Oh well, look, she criticised the teachers, she criticised the headmasters, the unions will be getting upset".

And as for salaries...we need to start putting in performance measurements when it comes to salaries for teachers. If they are not performing, if their class is failing, if the children aren't getting to a certain standard, then the teacher needs to go. And if it means bringing in more foreign teachers, then so be it because 90% plus...if you look at these figures that are published...of these teachers are Bermudian. And the majority of the children in the public schools are Bermudian. And what are those Bermudians doing for those other Bermudians? Everybody's making excuses. Everybody is making excuses in this country when it comes to education of our children and it is not acceptable. We pay over $18,000 per student in the public school system. Private schools are charging $12,000. Now, clearly, you pay much less...a third more for the public school system...a third less, I should say, in the private school. No matter which way you want to do the math, the point is, we are paying $18,000 per student. Look at the Budget book, over $18,000 per student and we accept the fact that 45% are failing...and we get up and say, "Oh well, you know, 45%...". I want to know what are we going to do about it?

And this is not the answer, throwing money at it is not the answer and I, personally, believe that the Government needs to be putting systems in place...we talk about them, we give them to a group to look at performance measurements, we look at accountability, there's a group down in the Department, or somewhere, that's looking at how they're going to implement it...and 3 years later nothing's done. And the numbers continue to decline, in terms of success rate of those who are graduating from high school. It's not acceptable, Mr. Chairman. It is not acceptable and I find it offensive for this country, a country that is considered to have the highest per capita income in the world...always been in the top three for the last couple of years...we have to tell the world that, guess what, we spent all of this money, more than most countries in the world...and somebody can find me 'a' country that spends more than Bermuda...I researched it and didn't find any but if somebody finds a country that spends more on education than we do, please let me know. But the point is we are not getting the performance that we should.

Now, I know that we have a new Permanent Secretary who has come in from the U.S. and she's been there, Rosemarie Tyrrell, who has taken over...and I hope that she comes in with a vision and a view of looking at these statistics and saying, "how are we going to improve this?" What measurement are we going to look at? Are we going to look at the UK system, the Ofsted I believe it's called, or are we going to look at a measurement in the US, in Russia, in Germany...in somewhere that is going to help us to measure our people? And not say we're going to get somebody to look at how they're going to implement it. Why do we always have to have another study upon a study to find out what we need to do? We know what we need to do. We need to make sure that our teachers are qualified, that they graduate from universities that are qualified and certified, that they have continuing education in new methods of teaching. The money is there. We put the money there but how do we know where the money is spent? And all I can go by is success...at success...and if you look at the statistics, all you find is that it keeps declining.

Now, we did have...in language...we did see a bit of improvement in years P3 and P4. Well, no, that's not true. P3 went down as well. P4...no, no, no...we have one year here. P4 went up over 2001 in the area of language; all the others declined. All the other areas declined. In reading, all areas declined. In math, we had three years that went up in math. We had...if you look at math; we actually had in P3, P5 and P6 that went up. So, that's three years out of nine or ten that are measured. Even so, there's hope, we had something that went up.

My point is that we need to be looking at spending in education. Where are we putting our money? And we like 'shiny' in Bermuda...look at the new Berkeley Institute. I'm sure most of us have been up there. The teachers will be teaching in wonderful facilities, beautiful building...lovely...green all throughout, like a hospital. But, in any case, teachers will be in an environment supposedly conducive to learning and so will the students. But what are we going to produce out of it? That's what I want to know. I really want to know this and I'm asking this genuinely and I ask the educators to please stand up. Now, I know people will say, "doesn't know what she's talking about". I can assure you I know what I'm talking about. I have two cousins who are headmistresses of a school. I have two sisters who are in the education system: one's up at CedarBridge, one is at Saltus. I have relatives throughout the system. I myself taught at university level in Europe. So, I know of what I speak and I have a genuine interest in education because education will determine where this country goes and we are going to be in serious trouble if we don't fix the education system. And every year we talk about it and everybody goes away, and the teachers are happy, and every year they get their improvement in teaching materials and whatever it is they want, and they get the books and they get a salary increase and they're happy and they have their holidays in the summer and their days to take off for sick leave...watch their child graduate. We give, we give, we give to the education system. You can see by the funding that the Minister of Finance has agreed for education, we do give. We put money there but we need to have some more credibility in the system.

Now...so I implore the Minister and I have said this, on this Floor of this House, ever since I came up here, that we need to start looking and comparing Bermuda's education from a holistic approach and not just the public education approach because the private... as I've said, if it's 40% or 50% of our kids that go there, they are just as important and we need to know how they are doing. And we don't, we don't. We only say, "Oh, the education system (period) is failing." Well what are the other students doing? Hopefully there's hope somewhere because in the public education system we have problems, and I don't know how serious the problems are in the private school system because we never hear them up here.

Now, with respect to teachers...and I have to say to my teachers, I need to know if they are qualified, how they are held accountable. In any other profession...in any other profession, if you continued to work and your output measures were on the decline, you would not stay. What profession would allow you to stay? What profession would allow you say, "Oh, you know what, you're failing"...and the teachers don't take it personally by the way, they don't think they're failing, they think it's the students failing. But they don't see it as a professional failure to them, I'm assuming. I have to assume that people don't think there's anything wrong with it, neither at the teacher level or at the Department level, because I never hear anybody standing up and saying that there's a problem.

I did go to a forum the other night, I must admit, that forum that they had up in Berkeley the other night and I did hear a teacher say, you know, that he thought it was a problem and we needed to look at how we were going to change the system. But I also heard a headmaster say that education was alive and well in Bermuda and all of us are looking and thinking, "You are not for real". Who believes that? I don't think anybody believes it in their heart of hearts, that there is not a problem. My question is how are we going to fix it?

So, we have a top-heavy Department...plenty of Officers...we know we all have them but I want to know, what are these Officers doing, who are holding them accountable and who are holding the teachers accountable? And that is a very real question...which is a real question. You see, it's easy to hold Governments accountable, don't forget. You can vote them in and out. So Governments get held accountable every four or five years, whenever there's an election. If you're not happy with the election...with the Government, you can throw them out. If you're not happy with teachers, it's not that easy to throw out a whole education system. It's not that easy to fire a teacher in this country, or get rid of a civil servant (period). I mean, that's the culture that we've created. That is the culture that we've created so, yes, the Minister can be held accountable if he's not doing a good job. The Premier can get rid of him tomorrow if he chose to. And if you're not satisfied with the Government, the public can throw out the Government in the next election. But, you know what? The education system will be still there needing to be fixed, no matter who is there. That's my point. That is my point so we need to look at ways. So, I'm glad we have a new PS, I'm glad, and hopefully she, like the former PS, will see what she can do in improving the education system for the benefit of all of our people.

The other area of accountability, of course, has to do with our parents. Now I know, I know, that there are homes that have real issues and I know the teachers see it every day. I know they see children coming to school who haven't had breakfast, who are totally spaced-out, who are stressed-out because of what they've seen in their home, whether it is their parent smoking marijuana or the husband beating up his wife. Whatever the issues are, these children are feeling the brunt of a country that is successful and therefore causing more stress on workers in many areas and causing "dysfunctional"...I don't like to use the word because I really don't know what "dysfunctional" is, quite frankly, because somebody's dysfunction could be somebody's functional. So, you know, the point is but "coming from homes that really create issues for children". And when they go to school, they cannot perform.

Now, I know that there was something that came up here under the Education Minister...I think it was when Minister Paula Cox was the Minister of Education...that was going to hold parents accountable. Their parents had to come in a certain amount of times, into the school, to talk to the teachers about their child. Is that happening? I don't know if it's happening. Somebody needs to tell us if it's happening. How many parents are actually participating? Are we getting help for parents, because we need to get help for parents as well? Clearly these are very real issues, but, you know what? The children aren't to blame for any of this. The children really are not to blame, whether it be "because my teacher's mediocre", "because my mom's not there", "because my dad doesn't give child-support", "because he beat up my mama last night". Whatever the issue is, the children are not to blame and we have to get away from saying, you know, the children are a problem. How are the children a problem? They are not a problem. It is either the parents, the teacher, the Minister in the church, whoever is not helping that child that is the problem. That is the problem and our role as adults, and our role as mentors is to help these children, and our role as Government and Opposition and Members of Parliament is to see and to work into having a system that works. And it's not because we think that any part of that pie isn't important. If we look at the education system as a pie, we think that the teachers are important but we do think they should be held accountable. We do think that the headmistresses are accountable and the people down at the Department. We think they're all important, I should say, but we also believe that they all should be held accountable. They are paying the taxpayers' dollars and our children are suffering as a consequence of the mediocrity that we are accepting. And mediocrity it is. And I think I'm being complimentary, quite frankly, by saying mediocrity. You have to understand this, by saying that it's mediocrity...because I could think of a few more words but I will settle for mediocrity. And so we need to improve the education system so that we spend our money in helping our children.

And we have to stop looking at whatever is new. I went to this forum and I'm hearing something new about Afro-centric...that our children need to have an Afro-centric education. Now, what does that mean? I have no idea what it means but, quite frankly, this country is made up of children of all different races, in case we hadn't noticed and no particular group...and I repeat it...is more important than the other. Not one person is more important than the other. Now, we know that, as a consequence of colonialism, racism and all sorts of -isms that certain people were left out of the system. But we are correcting all of that. We are correcting all of that. We have to correct all of that, but we have to accept that every child is important no matter what the colour of their skin is and, in this global world, we need to be preparing our students into how they will compete globally. That's what we have to create an education system that recognises the fact that everybody is important, no matter if they're of Filipino extraction, Portuguese extraction, black, mixed or whatever extraction that they are, they are just as important. So, all of this stuff about black...I mean, get over it. We accept the fact that we have people of different colour in this colour in this country but get over it. The time is to look at all of our children because all of our children, whether they...whatever race they fall within, whether they are private or public school children, they are all just as important. So, let's get over all this Afro-centric...and I don't know because if I say something about this ASHAY system that's going to hurt somebody's feelings too. We keep looking at something new to try to fix it when we have the tools already in place to fix it, we just need the people who are committed enough to do it. To recognise, firstly, that there is a problem and say, "Oops...hello...I'm in charge of this school and I recognise it is a problem".

And you know what I find odd? And I found odd when I became a Minister and obviously was elected to the Government, and in the Opposition I found the same thing odd. We never want to give the results of individual schools. We never want to say, for example, East End is performing at this level, Francis Patton at whatever level and Somerset Primary or Port Royal, etc. Paget Primary, at a certain level. And when we became the Government, I said, "Well publish the figures, the public needs to know". What was the answer? The same answer the UBP had, I'm sure, "Well, you know, people will get upset, the children will feel badly about themselves if you say that their school's not doing as good as another school". Well, we have this thing now with public education and private education where the perception is that if you go to public school you're inferior and if you go to private school, that you're superior. So, I mean, what more do we need, that mentality is already there. That is not the point. That is not the point of giving out results. The point of giving out results is to hold those teachers in those individual schools, and that headmistress or headmaster, accountable for the performance of their school. And perhaps, if they saw that East End's doing very well and, perhaps, Francis Patton...and, by the way, I'm just using these schools...I don't know, I'm not saying that that is actually the case...before people go running off and say I said Francis Patton was doing badly, because I would hope Francis Patton isn't doing badly, clearly for a number of reasons aside from the fact that I went there, of course, and it's in my constituency. So, the point is...the point is...if we compare two schools, School A and School B and we see that School B is doing better than School A, perhaps we could say to the headmistress and the teacher, "go up and see what A is doing and what your people aren't doing. Let's see how we can create a balance here because primary School A is doing very well and primary School Z isn't."

I mean, when do we start doing all of this dynamic stuff that everybody else in the world is doing? When are we going to start doing this? Why do we have to lump all the schools together? We all know that some primary schools, for example, are performing better than others. We know this already. Put the information out there. Let the parents hold the school and the teachers accountable. Let the parents do it then. Why is East End doing better than Port Royal, for example? This is what we need to be doing. Stop covering up for everybody. We cover up...I tell you we have a culture in this country that everybody covers up for everybody else and it's a mediocrity like I have never seen. You hold somebody accountable, they go running off to their union, the union comes up and backs them, the headmistress wants to sanction this teacher, this teacher's not performing, the other teachers rally all around them because if she points her out maybe it's me the next time. I mean, it is such a culture that is amazing to me. And it is not acceptable and it is not acceptable no matter who goes on the defensive and tells me that everything is alright; no matter who goes on the defensive because I am looking at the output and the output tells us that there is a problem. The output tells us that there is a problem and, therefore, we have to fix that problem. And it's not for lack of money, not for lack of funding because as you rightly say, we went from 46 million in 1996 to over 100 million now, and the same result.

So, clearly, something is wrong and we need to get to the bottom of it and we need to do something about. And one of the things I say, "Hold them accountable and put the individual school results out for everybody to see". Don't make any excuses for any of them because that's all we're doing by covering up what the individual schools are doing. Publish the figures in the paper. Put up websites. You can go in any country in the world and look and see what their schools are doing but in Bermuda we have a problem with it.

Certifying our teachers, I already talked about that. I already talked about the measurements that we use and we have the staffing in place. One of the things that we don't have enough of I hear, of course, and I can see it from the numbers, we don't have enough male teachers in the system. We have only 18-something percent male teachers in the system as opposed to the difference, 80-something percent women teachers in the system. We do need to have more male teachers in the system but, of course, if we don't have male teachers in the system, let those women teachers be held accountable and do the best they can to help to empower our male children as well to the best of their ability, because in many instances, unfortunately, these male children don't even have a father presence. And then not to have a male presence in the school can, indeed, cause difficulty when these young men get old and they start acting out and we don't know why they're acting out.

So, there are a number of issues, but we have the money in Bermuda to be able to put the resources in place but unless we have measurement systems in place at all levels: teachers, schools, parents, the Department of Education, etc. we are going to have problems. We are going to continue to have problems and it does not matter who the Government is. It really doesn't matter who the Government is because, from what I can see, and having looked at this information and past information, we have not been able to fix our problem. We haven't because the failure rate continues to grow and, as I said, students who are going in the private...one of the things that are up is the number of students going into the private system is going up or being home schooled.

So with that, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank those, as I said, who are doing their best because I know that there are some teachers out there who are really trying, some teachers who really are getting frustrated at what they see other teachers doing, some teachers that are getting really frustrated at the performance that their school is producing. And there are people who care. I'm not saying that there aren't people who care in the system, because we do have people who care, but those people need to be uplifted...those who care...they need to be uplifted and they need to be able to hold their fellow teacher accountable. And in some instances, I mean, the stories I hear about the level of some of the teaching and even the teachers...people telling me teachers can't even write properly in some instances. I mean, these are the stories I get from headmasters and headmistresses. What do you mean, they can't write? How are they supposed to teach if they can't, themselves, write and express themselves? We know it. We saw when we had the marching up in Parliament, when we saw all the teachers come up here; we saw the behaviour, outside of this Honourable House, of our teachers, so we know what we have. We need to fix it. That's all I am saying, we need to fix it.

And Mr. Minister...you know, people always tell me, you know, how come when you get up here now you can say what you want to say? Well, you know, there's such a thing as collective responsibility and one of the roles of a Backbencher in any Government under the Westminster system is to hold his own Government accountable. That is the role of the Backbench. Somehow people seem to forget that. I am not in the Cabinet so it's not collective responsibility, in that sense, that I am under. Now, I would have had the same conversation that I'm having now, in the Cabinet. That's the conversation I would have had. Now, what comes out of the Cabinet at the end of those conversations is collective responsibility. I have to support it, shut up or get out. It's very simple. When you're in the Cabinet, you have to either go along or get out. That's what collective responsibility is; you support everything your Minister says.

However, when you're in the Backbench...when you're in the Backbench, you have the pleasure, and sometimes the displeasure, of saying what you think. And somebody said to me, "Well I don't understand, you know, when you get up and criticise your own Government...". Now the Minister knows what I'm going to say, by the way, it's not like he hasn't heard anything new. He doesn't take it personally; he knew exactly what I was going to say when I got up. It's nothing new, for him, what I'm saying. So my point is...my point is...is that we all have to be held accountable for what we are seeing in the education system. We all have to help where we can with our own immediate sphere: relatives, nieces, nephews, whoever. I know we all know that and I'm sure all of us help wherever we can, those around us. With respect to the education system, we have to lift those teachers, those educators, who are trying their best, we have to lift them up so that they are not so "frustrated and disgusted" as some of them say that they actually leave the system and go to the private sector. We have seen so many good teachers leave and we don't want that to continue to happen. So, we need to make them know that they are important and they are going to work in an environment where everybody is held accountable and so you don't have some teacher in P3 having a wonderful class and all of a sudden at the end of P4, what happened to the kids? What happened to the kids? You know, so the answer is, "Well, they had a new teacher and something happened to the kids". Well, clearly, I would say it was a problem with the teaching if they can perform in one year and the next year go up again and go down, something is wrong.

So, if we measure within the classroom, and I think that must be the role of the headmistress I'm assuming, to make sure and look and see how every class, every year, is performing and then we look at the school globally which, I'm assuming, it must be the role of the Education Department to see how the schools are performing. Let the public know how they're performing. That's what I say to the educators. That's what I say to the Minister. Let them know and let them know sooner rather than later so that everybody in the country can hold them accountable. And, you know what, I believe the teachers within those schools will be happy because, at the end of the day, I think many of them, and probably most of them...probably most of them...at least I hope most of them, are really caring and are good performers. But we have too many who are mediocre and those we have to weed out and we have to hold everybody accountable and ensure that if we're spending $100+ million and if we have teachers who are making...or headmistresses who are making over $100,000 and we have teachers making $70,000 we need to make sure that we get deliverables that indicate that they are earning their money and that the education system is successful and that our students are faring well in the public education system. And, as I said, I want to know what's happening in the private education as well. But we need to know that money being spent on the public education, and that's what we're talking about here, is being well spent and that we see a result that means that our kids, our children, are going to be high-fliers/performers, ready to take over the country because at this rate we are going to keep importing foreign workers...if the economy continues to grow or even continues at the level that it is...we are not going to have the children ready to fulfil these jobs if they're coming out and going into senior high school and they aren't even able to read and write and construct a proper resume, even, to apply for a job.

So, we need to look at these issues and it is a serious matter what is happening in Bermuda in the education system and I would ask all of those who are involved in it to be held accountable and to feel good about the fact that you are an educator because you can sleep well at night knowing that you did the best for those children in your class on that particular day. And the educators say, "Well we're holding all the teachers accountable and we're weeding out those who aren't good". And if necessary, we have to go elsewhere to bring in some teachers then so be it because our children are too important to leave them to the hands of those who are not committed to education and not committed to ensuring that each and every one of our children are educated to the best of their ability.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.