Principals, teachers and others working in the Island’s public schools will meet tomorrow to air fears that they are being left out of plans for crucial educational reform.

The leaders of Bermuda Union of Teachers, the Association of School Principals and Bermuda Public Services Union claim Government is failing to involve or inform their organisations about changes planned for September.

Mike Charles, general secretary of the BUT, told The Royal Gazette last night that an interim executive board set up in the wake of last month’s damning Hopkins Report - which concluded that the public school system was “on the brink of meltdown” - was meeting in secret to decide how to implement recommendations for improvement and excluding teachers from discussions. The board - chaired by Bank of Butterfield chief executive officer Philip Butterfield - has been tasked with pushing through improvements recommended by UK professor David Hopkins and his team, who carried out a review into the failing public school system earlier this year. “We don’t even know what’s happening; no one is talking to us,” said Mr. Charles. “Everything seems to be in secret. One would have thought that something would be said to at least one of the major stakeholders.”

He questioned why teachers had not yet been told of changes planned for the start of the next school term - despite the summer term ending on Friday. “People have anxieties about the whole thing,” he said. “When people start meeting in secret, it gives people an uneasy feeling.”

His comments echoed remarks made by Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons in the House of Assembly last Friday. Dr. Gibbons said he had heard of interim board members being called to chairman Philip Butterfield’s office at the Bank of Bermuda and being asked to keep quiet about plans for change.

Dr. Gibbons said last night that it made no sense to leave key stakeholders out of the talks, particularly when Government was criticised for secrecy and a failure to communicate with educators in the Hopkins Report.

“To have people secretly invited down to meet with the chairman at his office at the bank and be sworn to secrecy just leads to further fear and concern in all the groups involved,” he said. “What you want is to get buy-in and co-operation.”

A Ministry of Education spokeswoman said that the interim board was meeting on a weekly basis and appointing members to its six working groups: principal leadership, teaching and learning, ministry reform, accountability, parent partnerships and medium term development. “Each of these working groups will be led by an interim board member and will include teacher representation,” she said. “The composition of these teams will be made public in due course.”

Tomorrow’s meeting is at the Berkeley Institute at 5.30 p.m.