Dr. Brown has described education as the biggest disappointment of his four-year tenure — and Bermuda Union of Teachers general secretary Mike Charles isn't too impressed either.

Mr. Charles says much of the blame for the continuing failure of the Island's public schools lies with the Ministry of Education but, as the leader of the Country, the buck stops with the Premier.

One of Dr. Brown's promises before his election as Progressive Labour Party leader was to talk and listen to teachers, parents and children.

Mr. Charles said teachers haven't been welcomed into discussions for large parts of the past four years, while they have grown frustrated at the lack of professional development.

Regarding talks with parents, Mr. Charles said: "I don't think they did very much of that at all. If they did, maybe parents are not listening. They have failed to convince the parents of the importance they play in education."

Dr. Brown had pledged to invest in sports to teach children about leadership, hard work and accountability.

Mr. Charles said: "Outside the two major sports, we don't have any investment. Instead of increasing the physical activity in schools, it's been diminished. Arts and music were very much lacking. Sharing teachers between schools is not the way to go."

Dr. Brown had stated: "We must do everything we can, and invest everything we can, in this, our most precious asset, our children, our future."

Pointing to a cut of $6 million in the latest Education Budget, Mr. Charles said: "We haven't done everything we can. We definitely haven't invested everything we can."

The general secretary did credit the Premier for delivering on a promise to increase the levels of history teaching.

And he said the Hopkins Report represented a start, but argued many of the Professor's suggestions were not followed up.

"Education is not an easy thing," he said. "In some ways, they tried, and in some ways it's probably not his fault. I know probably at times he's been frustrated by the pace of reform. But he's the head of state and I guess the buck stops with him."

The Premier, who cited the slow pace of reform when he sacked Randy Horton as Education Minister, has complained about Bermudians' reluctance to push for change in schools.

"But the minute we come up to resistance, we back up. We can't fix education without having some teachers take on extra work," he said last month.

"We have taken what I consider to be a mild approach to change. I don't think you can change big things like that by being mild."