Teachers rallied last night to discuss action over the review of the education system, claiming they are being kept in the dark.

As key stakeholders, teachers, principals and staff argue they are being neglected in the sweeping overhaul of the Island’s schools.

A month ago, Education Minister Randy Horton announced measures in the House of Assembly to implement reforms in Bermuda’s schools and his ministry. Action to ‘radically reform the Ministry of Education’ was one of ten recommendations in a damning review of Bermuda’s public school system by experts led by British professor David Hopkins.

It accused the Ministry of Education of being “poorly-led and mismanaged” and “secretive”, and called for a temporary external executive board to oversee a “major restructuring” of education on the Island.

Last month, an interim executive board chaired by Bank of Bermuda CEO Philip Butterfield was appointed. It meets once a week and has set up working groups in principal leadership, ministry reform, teaching and learning, accountability, medium term development, and parent partnerships.

Mr. Horton says he has given it “full rein” to draw up measures to meet the report’s recommendations, with implementation to start in September.

As this school year ends however, BUT general secretary Mike Charles said teachers were still in the dark about what to expect when they return to the classroom after the summer holidays. Earlier this week he claimed the board was meeting in secret and excluding teachers from discussions. “No one is talking to us,” he said.

The BUT, Association of School Principals and the Bermuda Public Services Union last night gathered at Berkeley Institute to discuss their concerns at a meeting closed to the Press.

Mr. Charles was last night unavailable for comment.

An ASP spokesman said: “Part of the discussion was dealing with the educational reform with the Hopkins Report but there is no further comment.”

Among the Hopkins Report recommendations were: the introduction of external assessors; staff performance reviews; monitoring of each pupil’s progress; raising the school leaving age to 18; and a federation joining CedarBridge Academy with Berkeley Institute.

A Ministry of Education spokesman said: “The Minister of Education, Sports and Recreation wishes to inform the public that the Interim Executive Board does meet on a weekly basis and is in the process of populating the working groups.

“Each of these working groups will be led by an interim board member and will include teacher representation. The composition of these teams will be made public in due course.”