of public school students taken over the last two years.

As we reported yesterday, the results are grim. When then-Education Minister Gerald Simons formed the Education Planning Team and began the restructuring of the schools in the late 1980s, he was primarily motivated by the problem that Bermudian students did decently at the primary level, but then lagged behind their North American counterparts.

The problem which Mr. Simons tried to solve is worse now. Bermudian students start behind their peers at the primary level and then lag further and further behind.

Because these are averages, it is likely that some students are performing at a very high level. By the same token, it can be assumed that other students are performing well below the already dismal average.

The good news is that Education Minister Milton Scott and his Government recognise that the schools are in crisis and improvement will take a national effort.

Sen. Scott has set a tough deadline for raising literacy levels by calling for students up to middle school level three to be reading at their age levels by 2003. This will require Government, parents, teachers and the wider community to pull together to ensure that the schools have the resources and the will to improve the situation.

This is a heavy task which will not happen without community support. But failure to act now will lead to far worse problems: a discredited Government school system; a generation of young Bermudians wasted; and a poorer Bermuda, both materially and spiritually.

PAY THE TAX EDT Pay the tax Let's see if we have this straight. MPs, who pass the laws for Government and set Government policies, are not Government employees.

That means that unlike the rest of the working population -- whether they are Government employees or toil in the private sector -- they do not have to pay payroll tax, according to a ruling from the Attorney General.

That begs the question of who MPs, and presumably Senators, do work for.

The answer is that they work for the people and on that basis it seems fair that they should shoulder the taxpayers' burden along with the people who elected them. The public must -- because Members of Parliament require it -- pay payroll tax; why should MPs be exempted from taxes they pass? It can be argued that this is a question of Peter paying Paul; MPs are paid by the Government and then pay the Government back a portion of their earnings.

But because MPs have been paying payroll tax since 1995, this decision gives them, as Shadow Finance Minister Grant Gibbons noted, a backdoor route to a pay raise. If it is a question of Government paying Government, then MPs' salaries should be lowered by the same amount they were previously paying in payroll tax.

It is still not clear if Government intends to correct the loophole, but it should be its first order of business when Parliament resumes. Failure to do so will demonstrate a mind-boggling cynicism on the part of this Government.

In the meantime, Parliamentarians should continue to pay the tax as a matter of fairness. And constituents should tell their representatives that this is the right thing to do.