In the final part in a series on the proposed Education Authority, education minister Diallo Rabain explains how success will be measured

Over the course of this series, I have explained why Bermuda needs an education authority, what autonomy means, how its Board will be selected, and how the transition will work.

But there is another important question:

What will actually change?

The answer is that this legislation is not simply creating a new board at the top of the education system.

It begins changing how important parts of public education will be governed and delivered.

Bringing decision-making closer to schools

One of the most significant changes is the future governance of our maintained schools.

The legislation sets out a model under which each senior school will have a Board of Governors, while primary schools will be governed through boards representing the western, central and eastern school zones.

The Education Authority Board must develop recommendations for the composition, qualifications, powers and operating arrangements of those boards and consult unions, aided schools, principals, parent-teacher associations and parish councils in designing them. The school boards themselves will then be established through the legislation that follows this first phase.

This matters because education reform should not simply transfer responsibility from one central organisation to another.

We also want stronger governance closer to our schools.

School buildings become part of the education conversation

Anyone involved in public education knows that the condition of our school buildings affects what happens inside them.

The legislation makes the authority responsible, subject to a service-level agreement with Government, for the maintenance, repair, capital works planning and management of educational and recreational facilities used by maintained schools and their grounds.

The transitional provisions also allow services provided by Government to continue through service-level agreements until the authority employs staff to perform them.

That means facilities are not an afterthought in the new structure.

The places where our children learn are part of the education system itself.

Student health is part of education, too

The legislation also gives the authority responsibility, subject to a service-level agreement with the minister responsible for health, for school-based health services for students at maintained schools.

Those services expressly include nursing, screening and student health support, speech and language therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and other allied health services determined to be required to meet students’ health-related educational needs.

Importantly, the legislation preserves the statutory responsibilities of the minister responsible for health, the Director of Health and government medical officers under public-health legislation.

Again, the principle is straightforward: a child's ability to learn cannot always be separated neatly from the support that child needs to learn.

And, ultimately, outcomes

All of these changes must eventually lead us back to one question: are they making education better for our children?

The legislation requires the authority’s annual operating plan to identify its strategic priorities, major activities and any quantitative indicators it has adopted to measure its performance.

It also requires quarterly reporting covering student outcomes, financial performance and system-wide governance, together with progress on reform initiatives and material risks affecting the public school system.

So creating the authority cannot itself be the measure of success.

Neither can creating school boards, changing who maintains buildings or reorganising school-based services. Those are means to an end.

For me, the questions remain much simpler:

• Are our children learning?

• Are our schools improving?

• Are our educators properly supported?

• Are students getting the support they need to succeed?

• Are we building a system capable of delivering those things consistently over the long term?

Government can change structures. Parliament can pass legislation. We can establish an education authority.

But, ultimately, the real measure of success will be what changes for the child sitting in a Bermuda classroom. That is the standard by which I believe this reform should be judged.

• Diallo Rabin is the Minister of Education and the Progressive Labour Party MP for Devonshire North Central