A new way of calculating graduation rates has been introduced so that student achievement can be more easily tracked, according to Education Minister Randy Horton.

In previous years, said Mr. Horton, students who were not enrolled in the BSC programme were included in published graduation rates, giving an inaccurate set of results.

He said previous statistics were also less reliable because there were was no way of knowing whether students had left the school system before graduating privately in Bermuda or abroad; if they were institutionalised; or if they dropped out in the traditional sense of the word.

Schools have now been equipped with the means to track where a student comes from when they enter the school system, and when they exit.

The flaws in the previous system have been corrected for this year's figures, which show a 48 percent graduation rate among S4 Year students enrolled in September 2005.

In order to provide a fair comparison with June 2005, last year's statistics have also been recalculated ? showing a graduation rate of 43 percent, as opposed to the 53 percent which was reported 12 months ago.