Details of work agreed with Australian-based consultants to guide education reform have been published on a government website, including a breakdown of the costs.

The Innovation Unit’s “proposals” listed on the Ministry of Education’s page cover 11 months from 2023-24 at $1.89 million, and 12 months in 2025, totalling about $2.52 million, which show that the values for various functions had increased.

In an opening segment of the 2025 statement of work, IU outlined continuing principles including maintaining its adherence to the “co-design process to ensure that the ownership and ambition of the work continues to sit with the educators, young people and their families, and the wider community“.

IU suggested in the latest proposal that its remit had shifted over time and that, going forward, more focus would be placed on preparing the local workforce to take over the reins in time for the formation of an Education Authority.

It also highlighted in a section on “contextual factors” that the Education Reform Unit had not been at full capacity since its inception, continued to have gaps and “has new members that have had little to nothing to do with reform to date and are at the stage of needing more, not less, support”.

It added: “Less than 50 per cent of schools are engaged in transformation and of those involved, no school is yet to complete a full cycle of transformation.”

The contract added: “While capability-building has been embedded in the approach to date, IU has consistently been asked to undertake more delivery work than proposed.

“This proposal considers an approach that focuses more heavily on preparing the system to be able to govern, lead and deliver continuing transformation at the proposed date for the Education Authority to be fully operational.”

Diallo Rabain, a former education minister, presented the ministry’s Budget in the House of Assembly last Friday on behalf of Crystal Caesar, the education minister, who sits in the Senate.

He said: “Although the timeline to bring forth the [Education Authority] legislation has been longer than anticipated, it is still a major priority under education reform.

“The time and effort invested during unforeseen delays will help produce sound legislation that will meet the vision and requirements for the future governance of the public education system.

“This work is being advanced to ensure a phased and measured approach to the development of this legislation.

“In that vein, the minister has committed to stakeholders that they will be informed and engaged with views considered before legislation is tabled.”

There appeared on the education ministry’s website to be no documents for the time from 2020, when IU’s first contract was secured, to October 2022.

Since 2023, more than $1 million was listed for “travel, insurance, design and printing”, with $483,000 for 2023-24 and $523,000 for 2025.

The cost for “communications and engagement” almost doubled during the same period from $70,000 to $132,000.

The amount for primary school transformation more than doubled in 2025 compared with the previous proposal, from $209,000 to $458,000.

Two parish primary schools are scheduled to open in September — the Devonshire Parish school at the Elliot Primary School site and Smith's Parish school at the Harrington Sound Primary School site.

During the 2023-24 contract period, Francis Patton Primary School opened as the parish school for Hamilton Parish and Purvis Primary School as the parish school for Warwick.

No school closures were required for those schools as there was only one school in those parishes previously and education reform loosely calls for one school per parish.

Gilbert Institute and Prospect Primary School are scheduled to close their doors next month.

The signature school transformation allocation went from $273,000 in 2023-24 to $343,000 in 2025, the documents showed.

In September, Sandys Secondary Middle School will transition into the island’s third signature school,

The first signature schools opened in September 2022 at The Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy.

“Education Authority” costs in the IU documents went from $44,000 in 2023-24 to $69,000 in 2025, while costs for “professional training and capability building” received $46,000 in both contracts.

There appeared to be no IU contract or budget covering the period of October to December 2024.

IU said in its 2025 intention: “This proposal specifies the resources IU proposes to bring to bear the next phase of education reform, what is required from the system in order to provide the conditions in which capability can be built and where IU will no longer play a role in day-to-day activities for particular work streams.”

The contract for November 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023 was $1,868,654, and an original contract for the period March 23, 2020, to September 30, 2022, was valued at $2,112,848 bringing the total amount paid to the company to $8,394,702.

The Royal Gazette asked the Government last Friday to provide more details for the costs outlined in the contract. A spokeswoman said yesterday that answers could be provided next week.