It has become usual for me to wait until Wednesday evening to write this column. This week, however, I was presented with rare inspiration. On Tuesday, reported the findings of a Life Skills and Literacy Survey conducted by the Department of Statistics. The study examined four areas of literacy ? prose, document, numeracy and problem solving ? to determine the level of comprehension of persons between the ages of 16 and 65. It found that 32 per cent of Bermuda's adults can only function at a basic reading level and one-third of black males between the ages of 16 and 30 struggle with basic literacy.

Those findings were later compared with results in other developed nations. Of the seven populations involved, Bermuda placed third overall, tying first with Norway in prose and second with Canada in document literacy.

On Monday, Premier Alex Scott addressed the findings at a press conference.

"I have charged the Minister of Education (Terry Lister) to set a date and time when we can declare that every graduate from our school system can read, just read," he said. "If he can give us a date when that can be realised we are well on our way of providing the basics for our most competitive society."

I had to read his comments twice ? and then share them with my colleagues, who were equally as astounded.

How can any child who is having difficulty reading be allowed to make it past primary three without receiving extra assistance? That they be allowed to graduate from high school is ridiculous. To my understanding, the word "graduate", implies a person who has met a certain standard of accomplishment in aspects of study. Silly of me to assume that reading ? as essential as it is to nearly every aspect of life ? be accorded priority in the system we have here.

I found it equally as shocking that, handed this information, the Premier didn't take Mr. Lister and the Department of Education to task for not providing every child with "the basics for our most competitive society" some time ago. Especially in our information-driven, capitalist economy, why on earth would anyone allow teachers to ignore the fact that a child is unable to read?

How can we demand that such persons adhere to societal norms when they haven't been given the required tools to adapt?

I was too upset to finish the article.

Instead, at the urging of a cruel colleague, I turned to page two. I expected to see there a breakout story in which the Premier acknowledged ? maybe even apologised for ? the abject failings of education and discussed an exciting, soon-to-be launched initiative which would shift the tide.

That didn't happen. The headline, 'Premier ties survey to Independence debate', decorated the upper left corner. Flabbergasted, but hopeful that had got it wrong or that the survey mentioned wasn't the one detailed on page one, I read on.

According to the daily: "Premier Alex Scott last night hailed the performance of Bermuda in a pioneering new literacy survey ? and hinted at its implications for the ongoing Independence debate.

"Mr. Scott told a PLP (Progressive Labour Party) meeting in Pembroke how he was asked at the press conference unveiling the results that, if the country was now so literate, why not hold a referendum on breaking ties with Britain. The Premier said the results revealed that Bermuda had a literate population that could read an election manifesto."

The article continued, quoting Mr. Scott's words to party supporters: "They can handle more than yes or no."

I won't even bother to bemoan the fact that the two matters are in no way linked. I'll accept that Mr. Scott answered a question at the press conference and chose to highlight the point at the later meeting.

However, Bermuda has always had a fairly high literacy rate. It's probably no higher now than it was in 1995 when the population read ? and was able to comprehend ? the slick advertising campaign for Independence that preceded the referendum held then on that issue.

When we consider today's literacy rates, we must do so mindful of the change that has taken place within our economy over the past decade and how that change has impacted on students' career choices.

The fact of the matter is the Department of Education was this year allocated a budget of $114.7 million. If I spent that much money on anything, I'd insist on being satisfied with the result.