July 5, 2011Dear Sir,I'm ashamed. You probably should be too. Two weeks ago, it was announced that teaching staff would be cut back in Bermuda public schools. It's a sensible response to an ongoing economic downturn. For the time being, fewer resources will be devoted to developing the education infrastructure of Bermuda.The reason we should be ashamed is this. For the past 40 years the Bermudian economy has steadily gotten bigger. For 40 years we knew that public education in Bermuda was not anywhere near as good as it had to be. For 40 years we had the means to make the system on a par with Finland, considered by many to have the best education system in the world.If we had, we wouldn't have had half the children going to expensive private schools. We wouldn't have those parents paying twice for education. Our problems with young males would be much less. Bermudians could consider the best positions in the industries that the country serves. With those positions would have come options for Bermudian ownership in those industries. Bermudians would have had a deep pool of educated talent to export, hire at home and to provide leadership in government.But we didn't do it. And we don't have any of those benefits because of it. We were warned repeatedly. We were told there were consequences. But we didn't listen. We allowed our government to adopt the indifferent dilatory attitude to education it retains to this day. By several measures we are just behind the United States which trails most of the developed world in academic achievement. We have paid for our negligence and we can be confident that now that there is less money, the consequences of our choices in the past will get worse.Before the PLP, we could blame the UBP and the ancient system of controls it inherited and used to govern. But then the PLP got in and another, quite different group had responsibility for making public education work. They didn't bother to fix it either. God knows there are some who tried. But as with the UBP, those crusaders get kicked to the back benches.So we can blame both parties or government in general but after 40 years it would be best to blame ourselves. As an old saying has it; you get the government you deserve. For 40 years we have had the means to save public education. With that resource we built two enormous schools which have not raised relative standards whatsoever. Millions have been spent, Ministers have resigned, teachers have been excoriated pointlessly, politicians have agonised. Nothing happened.The rest of the world has gone ahead of us. Some systems work, some don't. We seem to follow the Americans and then the English. Neither of their systems is particularly effective here or there. The OBA, who may be the next group to take a stab at this, seem to have no definite policies in place. They cite no education systems they admire, nor do they have any particular plan. Perhaps I am wrong. But this is the quote on their web page“Reform public education and create opportunity by significantly improving classroom effectiveness, introducing a fully integrated technical curriculum and a longer school day.”Not groundbreaking is it? Not particularly different from the trail of education plans that stretch back into Bermuda's distant past and did nothing. Doesn't exactly send you into the streets demanding better teacher salaries.We can always embrace the politics of the Caribbean and South America. Kids who go to private schools get into good professional schools. The rest form an underclass. We'll split further and further as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It worked for centuries. In mediaeval Europe. Its not very progressive but it's awfully nice if you're rich.JOHN ZUILLPembroke