OBA sets out proposed changes to Education Authority Bill
A number of recommended amendments to legislation designed to create an education authority have been proposed by the One Bermuda Alliance.
The party also questioned whether a truly autonomous entity will be created by the Bill, soon to be debated in Parliament.
Victoria Cunningham, the Opposition Senate Leader, suggested in an opinion article published in The Royal Gazette today that the first chair and chief executive of the board be appointed “through the Bill’s own merit-based process” rather than by the minister — Diallo Rabain at present — as set out in the proposed law.
She also said that the Transition Advisory Committee established under the law should be “genuinely advisory”, and that the Government should publish ministerial directions and quarterly reports.
Ms Cunningham added that there was no protection for whistleblowers and pointed out that the Bill created an offence with a fine of up to $25,000 for disclosure of the authority’s affairs.
Finally, the OBA said there must be a “hard backstop” on delays and that the authority must be given “multiyear budget certainty”.
Ms Cunningham wrote: “The process for selecting the initial board members has merit.
“Independent criteria are set and the minister must publish how each appointee meets them.
“But the first chairman and the first chief executive officer are appointed directly by the minister. That bypasses the open selection process the Bill itself creates for the CEO.
“The minister also sets members’ terms and pay, fills vacancies and can remove members on broad grounds without independent review. And the ex officio seat promised in July to the Commissioner of Education [at present Radell Tankard, acting] has gone to the permanent secretary [at present Andrew Pettit] instead.”
Education stakeholders including parents, politicians and educators have signed off on a letter in support of ensuring “a more capable centre, more empowered schools and clearer accountability” in the formation of an Education Authority.
The letter published in The Royal Gazette today had 20 signatories including Omar Dill, the chairman of the Free Democratic Movement, Cindy Corday, the cofounder of the Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning, and Ellen-Kate Horton, a former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education.
It urged Parliament to examine the Education Authority Bill 2026 against three questions:
• Is the proposed authority sufficiently independent to provide stable, professional leadership?
• Will schools and their communities be given meaningful authority and accountability?
• Will the new structure provide the specialist expertise and support that teachers and students actually need?
The letter stated: “The current Minister of Education [Diallo Rabain] and the Premier [David Burt] must answer for the Government's record — but Parliament now has responsibility for what comes next.
“If MPs pass an Education Authority Bill that fails to establish clear and effective accountability, responsibility will extend beyond the Government that designed it, to the Parliament that approved it.”
Ms Cunningham also said that in abolishing the Department of Education and setting up new school governance, the authority board must act in accordance with the advice of the permanent secretary and public officers appointed by the minister.
“An independent board bound by the ministry’s own officials is not independent where it matters most,” she said.
Ms Cunningham also highlighted that quarterly reports on student outcomes, monthly progress reports and the annual operating plan all go to the minister.
“None of them must be published or laid before Parliament,” she said.
The offence the Bill creates for disclosure of the authority’s affairs, the OBA states, provides no protection to whistleblowers.
Ms Cunningham added: “A future minister could stall this reform without changing a word of the Act.”
• To read the Education Authority Bill, see Related Media
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