Minister of Education Tim Smith found answering a question from Opposition Leader and Education Shadow Minister Jennifer Smith in the House of Assembly yesterday as easy as A,B,C.

Ms Smith demanded to know how many M4 students performed at grade level in maths, English and reading.

Mr. Smith told her: "There are no M4 students in Bermuda's education system.'' The middle school system runs from M1 to M3, after which pupils move up to senior secondary and S1.

And Mr. Smith declined to answer a further question, despite Ms Smith's attempts to clarify her question.

He said afterwards: "That's why I had a choice of making an assumption or asking her. But it's up to them to be precise, not me.'' Ms Smith also asked how the Education Ministry measures the effectiveness of teaching, programming, services and curriculums.

And she also wanted to know what special help youngsters who were not performing well, but did not have "defined learning difficulties'' could expect.

Mr. Smith replied efficiency was checked by programme supervision and student assessment.

He said: "Education officers visit schools every week to observe programmes in action. They provide written feedback to principals and senior officers on the ongoing implementation and management of these programmes.'' He added a summary report on each schools' programme is produced twice a year and shared with each principal.

Mr. Smith said assessments could be carried out by schools or centrally administered.

The school's own assessments are combined with external reviews to check effectiveness, with changes being introduced if necessary.

Mr. Smith said under-achieving pupils had been specially targeted by teachers.

He said they get extra time for reading instruction, increased time for reading aloud to pupils and extra reading activities.

Mr. Smith cited the use of reading months, projects involving book work, reading to adults invited to schools and overnight "read-ins''.

He added that some schools also operate "early bird'' reading clubs, run with the support of parents, while parents can also opt to join a scheme where they pledge to listen to their child read every night.

Mr. Smith said special programmes operated through primary, middle and secondary level.

Middle schools offer extra tuition to pupils with problems, outside of normal class time and he said extra time will be allocated to reading this year.

And he added CedarBridge Academy uses community volunteers to help youngsters with reading problems on a one-to-one basis.

Mr. Smith said: "The Ministry has appointed a committee of teachers, principals and central office staff to review reading instruction and to provide recommendations for employment.''