IT had long been expected that the wide-ranging audit of Bermuda’s public school system would reveal systemic problems and large deficiencies that would underscore just how much we as a country are failing in this area. <@$p>But to employ the word “traumatise” in reference to the teachers in the system — teachers who the Shadow Education Minister believes should have their dignity preserved in the wake of the audit’s release — is, in my opinion, to miss the point.We have a crisis on our hands when it comes to public education.

And while the findings of the independent audit of our public schools may do nothing for the morale of those teachers who do indeed give their all when it comes to public education, the bottom line is we must always recognise what the top priorities are when it comes to this thorny issue. These priorities are, to my mind, our children and their educational needs and, beyond this, the national interests of this country.

No one has been a greater defender of teachers and the important role they play in education than myself. I have written any number of Commentary columns on this subject, even citing my own personal experiences with teachers who pushed me to perform at a higher standard than I knew I was capable of.

However, I simply cannot accept Dr. Gibbons’ conclusion that teachers in the public education system will be left “traumatised” by the audit’s findings — and it’s true the report does come down very heavily on teacher performance in Bermuda’s public schools.

After all, teachers are on the front lines of education. They would (or should) know who is failing and why in a system with a passing rate of less than 50 per cent.

I have always seen the area of public education as a three-pointed triad involving equal roles for Government, teachers and — most importantly — parents.

Before the release of the audit’s findings there was a general reluctance to openly criticise teachers in the public school system, even when they staged wildcat work stoppages and strikes to advance their interests at the expense of our children’s educational needs. But that reluctance to call a spade a spade may well be coming to an end.

The Education Ministry and school principals have also come in for heavy criticism in the report — with the Ministry and its out-of-touch ways even coming in for censure from the teachers themselves. It seems teachers in the public schools have long chafed at what they consider to be high handed directives coming from a Ministry that is disconnected from the realities of what goes on in the public education system.

There is another aspect to all this that we would do well to consider. For while the focus of this audit was on the structural failings in Bermuda’s public education system, I wonder what we as a somewhat distracted, somewhat inert country would think of similar root-and-branch explorations of other areas of Bermudian life? How would we handle further revelations about the failures and shortcomings in our society, failures and shortcomings we generally tend to either laugh off or just ignore.

We too often would rather not face some hard and unpleasant realities when looking at our country and, in that regard, I have more than once used the term “the fig-leaf society” to describe the mindset of too many Bermudians.

I would maintain that the failures we see in public education do not exist in a vacuum; they are symptoms of a much broader Bermudian malaise. But such is the Bermudian psyche, we are unwilling to confront our problems head-on.

I am sure this mindset explains, in part, the uncomfortable feelings some Bermudians have for the leadership style of Premier Dr. Ewart Brown. For he has demonstrated his willingness to confront our socio-economic problems head-on and unlike so many politicians, he does not try and camouflage what may alarm Bermudians behind a fig leaf.

Even though the underlying causes for the present lacklustre public education system date from the days of a United Bermuda Party Government and its reform policy based on the now discredited middle school system (dismissed as a failure in the recent audit), the present Government cannot escape criticism.

It has had almost a decade to arrest the decline in public education.

Yet it has only moved recently to try and reverse the damage UBP policies have inflicted on the system. Perhaps it could not have embarked on such a radical change of course without someone like Premier Ewart Brown at the helm.

Now we are faced with the hard reality of a failed public school system and the urgent need to take corrective action. The necessary reforms clearly cannot be implemented without causing some pain to those already ensconsced in the Ministry of Education and our schools. But, for the greater good of our children and our country, those reforms must be introduced as quickly as possible.

In the wake of the audit’s release, there are some who are writing off our public school system altogether, going so far as to say maybe it should be scrapped. I will not be joining their ranks. I am a proud product of the Bermudian public school system, a system that once worked and which can work again.

I went to school at a time when there were 30 — sometimes 40 — students in a class and one teacher (who taught all of the subjects on the curriculum) was the norm. All of my formal education took place in this country and my teachers were, for the most part, dedicated Bermudians.

I never had the privilege of going overseas to further my education but I was provided with such a solid foundation by the Bermudian public school system that I have always been able to study and interpret the world around me.

I have grandchildren who are in the public education system or who are just about to enter it. It is not in their interests or mine to accept public schools that are failing our children and, ultimately, our country.

Let me say this to the administrators and teachers in our public education system: This is not the time to feel traumatised, this is not the time to feel your dignity is being compromised, this is not the time to give in to low morale because the audit has told us a few home truths. This is in fact the time to rise to the challenge, this is the time to commit to overcome. The interests of our children and our country demand that we do no less.