Almost 60 per cent of residents support Bermuda’s public schools moving from a three to a two-tier system, a recent survey revealed.

Results from the Omnibus Survey also showed that eight out of ten residents approved of an education authority that would operate independently from the Government.

Of the 400 residents who took part in the survey, 58 per supported a two-tier public school system in Bermuda, with the number of respondents who strongly and somewhat agreed evenly split at 29 per cent each.

Approximately 27 per cent of respondents opposed the two-tier proposal, while those who somewhat or strongly disagreed with this idea were also evenly split at 14 per cent, and 15 per cent were unsure.

Narrative Research Bermuda conducted the survey via telephone between August 28 and September 11, weeks after Diallo Rabain, who was reinstated as the Minister of Education in July, said the ministry planned to continue implementing a two-tier public school system in Bermuda.

Crystal Caesar, the former Minister of Education who resigned from the post, had paused these proposed reforms during her tenure as minister between February 2025 and July 2026.

A statement said: “Among respondents who attended public school in Bermuda, 38 per cent strongly support the two-tier model, compared with 13 per cent of those who attended private school in Bermuda and 9 per cent of those who attended both public and private schools in Bermuda.”

Mr Rabain laid the Education Authority Act 2026 before the House of Assembly last month, and it is expected to be debated in Parliament today.

He told MPs last month: “An education authority provides a governance structure whose remit is education, and only education, insulated from the pressures of short political timescales, with a single, accountable point of professional leadership at the top of the public school system.”

Survey participants also offered their thoughts on the authority overseeing Bermuda’s public schools.

Four in ten said they would strongly support it, while the same number said they somewhat supported it.

Fewer than two in ten either strongly or somewhat disagreed with the proposal.

The statement added: “Residents with household incomes of $75,000 to under $150,000 are more likely than those with lower household incomes to support creating the authority.”

Of the weighted sample size, 346 survey participants were Bermudian, 208 were Black, 209 were women, 172 were aged between 35 and 54, and 140 had annual household incomes of between $75,000 and $150,000.