The school results released last week made for sobering reading.

Bermuda public school students scored below the international averages, often well below, in the primary school and middle school checkpoint exams, while secondary school students, with a few exceptions, performed poorly in IGCSE exams.

Not a single primary school achieved the international average in English, maths or science. While some schools achieved scores representing average to solid understanding, there were some schools whose average scores were simply dismal in maths and science.

For the middle schools, the story was essentially the same, although Whitney Institute exceeded the international average in English by some way. Whatever it is doing in that subject should be bottled and sold to the other schools. By way of disclosure, the author of this editorial is a trustee at Whitney.

At the senior level in the core subjects of English and maths, 60 per cent of Berkeley students achieved a grade of C or higher, which, while below the international average of 84 per cent, is still worthy of recognition. By contrast, only 29 per cent of CedarBridge’s students achieved a C or better.

Maths was even more depressing. Only 34 per cent of Berkeley’s students managed a C or better while a pitiful 6 per cent of CedarBridge’s students managed a grade of C or higher.

In the sciences, students take a variety of exams from specialist individual science to combined science, which gives one GCSE grade for all three sciences, to co-ordinated science, which offers two GCSE grades for all three sciences.

With the exception of co-ordinated science, where 68 per cent, or 17 of 25 Berkeley students, achieved a C or better, the rest of the subjects were well below a 50 per cent pass rate. In some cases, no one achieved a C at all.

In an epic understatement, a Ministry of Education press release admitted there was “room for improvement”.

Some of the reasons cited for Bermuda’s lack of performance included the non-selective nature of the public school system, small cohort sizes — which can create statistical volatility — and the academic disruption experienced globally during and following the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also conceded that the disruption of eight years of its own failed education reforms and leadership turnover would have affected results. There the ministry has a point. A misconceived, metastasising set of “reforms” has wreaked havoc with the system and wasted millions of dollars. Crystal Caesar, the new minister, deserves credit for at least stopping the madness.

Some of the other points are also valid. The Cambridge international curriculum is often taught at selective schools around the world, whose results will lift international averages. It is also true that in some cases, small classes can skew averages, although it should be noted that this can happen in both directions, but mainly seems to bring down performance in Bermuda.

It is also true that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected an entire generation of students and it is refreshing to hear the ministry admit this.

But the fact is that students in Bermuda were not the only ones to be affected by Covid-19. It does not explain why Bermuda schools are so far below average.

Unfortunately, because the Government has not released results since 2019 when The Royal Gazette procured them through a PATI request, there is no real way of determining whether performance is improving, remaining level or worsening.

The ministry should release results by school and on a three-year rolling average as well, so it is possible to see if schools are improving or getting worse. This will eliminate the problem of a particular school year, which may be well above or below the norm, skewing results in a single year.

The Bermuda Union of Teachers made similar points in its response to the results but was, perhaps predictably, keen to say that the results should not be used to assign blame.

It is fair to say that these exam results are not the sole measure of success in the education system. As part of the confused nature of the public school curriculum, it is not clear how seriously the schools take these exams, which do not determine if a student graduates or not.

But they are the only means of measuring school performance against international benchmarks, and indeed against Bermuda private schools.

And if blame should not be assigned as the BUT wishes, then people in the system should be held accountable.

By any measure, these results are dismal. They should be ringing the alarm bells that whatever has been happening in the public education system since the pandemic has been grossly inadequate and risks failing an entire generation of students.

What is also of concern is how divergent the results are within a single system. With the caveat that there can be excellent or very poor years in a school, especially when there may be less than 20 students in that year, it is difficult to understand why St David’s Primary can average 23 in its results while East End Primary, less than a mile away and in a similar catchment area, averages 9.

What appears to be happening in the system is an utter lack of accountability. If a school is underperforming for a number of years, the reasons why need to be determined and changes made. Where schools are outperforming their peers, their successes need to be analysed and taken to other schools.

Education needs a culture of continuing improvement and a pursuit of excellence.

What it does not need is blame passing.

And it does not need restructuring. While facilities should be maintained and improved, the ministry should be laser-focused on teacher quality and improvement.

Ms Caesar has had a rough ride since she came into office and can be faulted for poor execution of the pauses and reversals she has brought about. But she was right to make the change, even if politically, the Progressive Labour Party will never admit the scale of its blunder.

She has an opportunity now to set education on a better course, one focused on improved performance, better teaching and a belief that all of Bermuda’s children, and not just some of them, deserve the chance to succeed.