Education Minister Elvin James has revealed government is going high tech to boost teaching.

He told the House of Assembly that Bermuda Educators Council would be using a web-based system to monitor professional development of teachers and make sure they are up to license requirements.

As of the end of 2008 there were 1,227 licensed teachers in the public and private system.

He said 110 projector systems, which display info to an entire class who can interact with it via smartboards, have been installed in Primary 4-6 class rooms, with P1-P3 classrooms targeted for installation during the next academic year.

And 100 document camera devices which display written content from books and students have been installed in Primary 4-6 while additional projectors will be installed in other primary and middle school classrooms.

A computer-based substitute teacher tracking system will be piloted in April with full deployment scheduled for the beginning of the school year.

And all schools would publish their final test results on their websites, said Mr. James.

"This level of transparency is essential if parents are to feel confident about the education that their child is receiving and able to voice concerns if performance is not good enough.

"Let me be clear that parents will be aware of how their child is performing but no-one else will have that particular child's results."

He said some viewed the publication of results as a negative.

"I believe however that publication of performance results is an important to celebrate success, and ensure that both parents and the broader public know when real progress has been made."

Mr. James said teachers have been trained in a new programme called Everyday Mathematics, developed in Chicago, which had proved very successful in tests over 20 years, compared to other programmes.

And he said the reading recovery programme was a success with 84 percent of students graduating from it.

"This means that for these students, no further interventions services are required and they have been spared the stigma of literacy failure at the earliest possible time."

He said the Bermuda Secondary Certificate (BSC), long the cornerstone of the education system, has weakened and schools were finding it difficult to combine teaching the BSC with the demand for other qualifications.

"We will therefore consult on revising the BSC to incorporate internationally recognised qualifications, which will enable young people to be more competitive in the global education and labour markets."

Mr. James stressed the importance of teamwork and open communication between all "stakeholders" in education.

"We have no time to waste on petty partisan differences when our children's future is at stake," he remarked.

He revealed that he has already had the first of what will become monthly meetings with Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons.

The idea of these, he said is "so we can both beat the same drum, the one that says 'student achievement above all else'."

Mr. James already meets with the Bermuda Union of Teachers for an hour once a week and the Association of School Principals every other week.

Although some union leaders have in the past criticised the Ministry for poor communication, Mr. James described these meetings as "cordial and fruitful."