Dear Sir,

After reading your front-page headline story "‘Unacceptable’ results” in relation to the poor reading results/skills of some of our schoolchildren, ask radio host David Lopes what happened to him when he began his broadcasting career and he mispronounced a word?

Also ask David Lopes and any other broadcaster/radio announcer of the early 1960s what happened to them when they allowed seconds of “dead air” on the airwaves?

Mr Editor, listen to statements being read by some government ministers on the floor of the House of Assembly.

Listen to statements being read by some junior ministers in the Upper House of our legislature, the Senate.

In order to convey a message, one must be able to understand what one is reading to be able to communicate it.

Listen to a junior minister in the Senate attempt to address or answer a question. Listen to the amount of dead air while that junior minister is being briefed by technical officers.

How can the President of the Senate allow, permit, tolerate such silence?

How can any self-respecting professional broadcaster tolerate such dead air on its airwaves for more than 90 minutes?

Did I hear correctly a newscaster say “the House of the Lord” referring to the House of Lords?

Did I hear correctly Puisne Judge pronounced with an “s“ sound when it should have simply been pronounced ‘puny’!

Mr Editor, are these reading deficiences on the part of our high-paying government and junior ministers in our legislature a result of these "‘unacceptable’ results” for which the Covid-19 pandemic is blamed?

Mr Editor, the broadcasting/coverage of the sittings of the House of Assembly and the Senate are not just confined to our 21 square miles and 60,000 population. In this age of instant technical communication, members of the House of Assembly and senators should be mindful that they are being heard and studied all over the globe.

That they are representing Bermuda, that they should strive to be models of presentation for Bermuda for their constituents, for our children and for our young people. They should know that their statements, their scripts, like a radio/television script, were not written to be read, but written to be heard and understood.

LEIGHTON ROCHESTER

Hamilton Parish