Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons yesterday declared a highly critical report on Bermuda’s public schools as a “complete indictment of the PLP’s management of the education system”.

The former Opposition Leader delivered his verdict a day after a team brought in to review the Island’s 25 public schools announced that the majority were merely satisfactory at best and that huge changes were needed to improve results.

Dr. Gibbons told The Royal Gazette that the decision to appoint overseas experts, as well as Bermudians, to conduct the inquiry “lacks courage”.

He said: “You bring in a consultant and let them deliver the bad news for you. I think it’s rather disturbing that Government wasn’t able to see this for themselves. “We can’t forget that it is Government that has responsibility for setting the overall policy directions.

“It’s really their leadership that has failed. There’s a clear sense that the report attempts to shift the blame to both the Ministry and the teachers.”

He said there had been an incessant turnover of Education Ministers since the PLP came to power in 1998 and that the public would now we asking what they had been doing and why it had taken Government so long to realise the system was in crisis.

Dr. Gibbons said it was hard not to agree with most of the findings in the report complied by UK professor David Hopkins and his team — and claimed that many of the recommendations had previously been made by the United Bermuda Party.

The party’s 2003 election platform argued for more autonomy for principals and a raising of educational expectations — both suggestions made by the review team. “I think the real test is going to come with implementation,” said Dr. Gibbons. “It’s easy to make a big fanfare, particularly before an election. The really difficult part of the job will be left until after an election.”

He said if mishandled the overhaul of schools could lead to “chaos” in the public education system. Dr. Gibbons explained that he had watched a tape of the broadcast of the findings on Thursday evening after attending a pre-arranged business dinner but left immediate reaction to UBP Leader Michael Dunkley due to the lateness of the hour.

* Are you a teacher, student or parent in the public school system? If so, we want your views on the education review. Email news[AT]royalgazette.bm or call 278-0133.