The Education system has failed scores of Bermuda's students through the practice of social promotions, the Opposition said yesterday.

Referring to a Bermuda Sun story about the Education department's efforts to rein in the practice, Opposition MP Maxwell Burgess said that it was unconscionable that students were leaving the school system unable to read and write.

And he said those that end up in prison "shouldn't be doing time by themselves because a larger crime was committed against them."

Mr. Burgess said that it was "nonsensical" to promote students on the basis that they have grown physically and not intellectually.

"The buck stops with us. We have let those children down," he continued. "Innocent children just looking for a fighting chance have been let down by us. And Mr. Speaker, that has to be declared unacceptable."

He called upon Government to address the matter at its next Cabinet meeting and consider outlawing social promotion.

"To waste one more life is the biggest crime of all," he said.

Mr. Burgess added: "I can just imagine the frustration and the anger and the bitter resentment that has to exist in an individual who cannot read and write ... There's no excuse for violent behaviour but it's certainly mitigation."

He said the Education department should assess how many "victims of social promotion" there are in the community and provide a compensation package which would include free education through university.

"How social do we expect them to be when they can't read and write? Since when is it important to be social and ignorant?"

But Mr. Burgess also called for parents and students to play an active part in education.

Parents should find out the reading standards of their children and students who find they are not doing as well as they should seek help from their parents and teachers.

His colleague, Cole Simons, backed the call for an end to social promotion, saying that schools which insist on moving unprepared students forward should give reasons for doing so.

Mr. Simons added that students in need of remedial work should be invited to work during the summer or come into school on Saturdays.

"We cannot cheat our young people. Education is being compromised." And he said that students need to learn the lesson that if they don't do well they should try harder.