The man behind the comprehensive public education review is confident recommendations will be followed.

Professor David Hopkins — who led the team of experts — said already there is a willingness to take on many of the suggestions from all sectors of the education field. But he also told The Royal Gazette the education system does not have people capable of bringing about the “rapid raising of standards” needed and an interim board will have to be appointed.

He added the standard of education here is lower than elsewhere and the Island could benefit from publishing school results. And dismantling the Ministry of Education — which was deemed a “poorly led and mismatched organisation” — would require cuts at several levels of the Ministry, not just the top.

On Thursday the Premier, Dr. Ewart Brown and Minister of Education Randy Horton unveiled the in-depth review of public education with members of the review team.

The review found that the Ministry of Education is a “secretive” and “paternalistic” organisation that “stifles” progress in education.

It also found the quality of teaching is poor and has contributed to the “widespread under-performance” in public schools and recommended that Principals need to be better leaders and spend time in classrooms to address the “culture of low expectations and lacklustre teaching”.

Yesterday, both Prof. Hopkins and Dr. Peter Matthews, who was also on the review team, agreed that the standard of education here was lower than elsewhere. “It is quite devastating to see the middle schools here do worse when compared to the 50th percentile in the US,” Dr. Matthews said. “That is a massive cause for concern.”

Prof. Hopkins added that due to the UK’s culture of accountability compared with Bermuda’s culture or low expectations the three primary schools found to be outstanding would only be classified as good in the UK.

During the review process Prof. Hopkins said members of the Ministry of Education could not say what the mission statement was for public education, or what the strategic plan was. Because of this the team recommended an interim board to oversee “major restructuring” and develop a three-year plan.

“We do not see the capacity here to reform the system,” he said “But this board would only be temporary, it would not replace the Ministry.”

Dr. Matthews said the review found there was a perception that people appointed to positions within the Ministry went to under qualified people, because of who they knew or length of service.

“He added that the review team had know way of knowing if that was fact but was reporting that many perceived it to be so.

Dr. Hopkins said the whole structure was wrong: “The system is not well led. “It’s a top down system and the teachers do not feel they are consulted enough and that things are kept secret.

“They feel things are imposed on them when they feel there are better ways forward. Ways forward that they have expressed to the Ministry.”

The restructuring would require cuts at several levels of the Ministry. Neither men would say how far down the management ladder the problems go saying the aim was not to single out individuals but correct the system.

And though they did not name the schools that were deemed inadequate in this review because they were asked to do a system wide review they felt publishing school result in the future would be useful.

He said the team felt they did not spend enough time in each school to be able to provide analysis on a school by school basis in this review but that Bermuda’s education system could be more transparent.

He said: “There are systems where league tables are published elsewhere in the world and Bermuda could benefit from doing that.”

But hope was not lost, Prof. Hopkins said, because many people in education have accepted many recommendations without question and the Government leadership appeared determined to fix the system.

The most important thing was ensuring recommendations get followed out, particularly the top four - dramatically improving the quality of teaching, requiring better leadership from principals, dismantling the Ministry of Education, and creating an interim board to oversee the transition.

He said: “If you do one of the top four recommendations without the other four it won’t work.

“The top four need to be done immediately, before September. If they are done you should results by the end of the year, in the school results.”

Yesterday, the review team met with education officials and principals and said the reaction so far has been a willingness to change.

“It’s almost cathartic, this process,” he said. “To many it’s a breath of fresh air, we haven’t said anything educators didn’t know. Now they want to know what to do with it,” he said.

“If they had been feeling negative about it they would have been try to challenge the findings, but there was none of that this morning.”

Dr. Matthews added calls from Opposition Leader Michael Dunkley for the Minister’s resignation were too early, with the Minister only being in term several months and calling for the review along with the Premier.

He said: “They could have had a better review, they did not have to come to us.

“We have done a lot in the UK where there is a higher level of accountability. So picking us shows they wanted the truth. If — in a year’s time — nothing has happened, find them accountable.”

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