HE recent announcement by Government that graduation figures for students in the public school system have now fallen below the 50 percent level, shocking and disturbing as this news was, probably did not come as a surprise to most Bermudians. For it has long been feared, even without Government statistical confirmation of these suspicions, that student achievement in the public school system ? particularly at the high school level ? is not what it should be.

But even more disturbing to me than the depressing numbers released by Government is the overall reaction to this sobering announcement on the part of the Bermudian people.

For apart from the headmasters and teachers, whose professional organisations have issued statements underscoring the magnitude of the educational crisis now developing in our public schools, there's been a decidedly muted reaction to what must be the leading social catastrophe of our time by rank-and-file Bermudians.

This escalating failure to educate young Bermudians to the level where they can hope to pursue higher education and then return to the island to join a fast developing, technology-and information-driven economy, will have longterm consequences for this country unless the situation is addressed ? and reversed ? in the near future.

I am afraid this failure to provide a majority of our young people with a solid educational foundation is far more significant than the current debate about race relations which is currently heating up the radio airwaves and filling the Letters to the Editor columns.

For if officially sanctioned racial segregation represented a profound barrier to the social and economic development of black people in the last century, then what looks like the wholesale failure of our public education system (a system which, it must be remembered, also caters to a not insignificant proportion of our white students) represents an equally obtrusive obstacle to Bermudians' progress in the 21st century. Consequently we as a people should be every bit as concerned about ridding ourselves of this failing system now as we were when we fought to dismantle the barriers of segregation in the past.

The problem, though, is that Bermudians overall do not seem to view the meltdown in public education in this light. In fact, we tend to get distracted by matters of far less consequence ? allowing them to gain a significance on the public agenda that is not at all merited.

For instance, more people have expressed more heated concerns about the costs of the upcoming Cricket World Cup than have spoken up about the crisis in our public education system ? a crisis that will have far more grave repurcussions for the long-term development of our country than any cricket games Bermuda wins or loses on the international level.

This is our major problem as a country; we always seem to get our priorities wrong when it comes to addressing ? and resolving ? those issues that have the most impact on our forward progress.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting we should entirely sideline the question of racism in the Bermuda context or the need to finally find practical solutions to its ongoing manifestations in Bermudian society.

But what I am saying is that racism should perhaps no longer be viewed in isolation. Racism and other social issues that are negatively afflicting this community need to be examined in their totality ? their inter-relatedness thoroughly studied and examined and charted ? and then we need to take a stance which involves confronting all of these matters at the same time, rather than addressing one or two in splendid isolation and as a consequence allow the others to fester and grow.

Now, there have been a few calls for a comprehensive review of Bermuda's public education system but we do tend to mark time in this country with various inquiries and reports rather than rolling up our sleeves and taking the sort of direct action which is clearly so necessary in some socio-economic areas.

I clearly remember the last large-scale education review (and the resulting recommendations which were meant to "reform" the public school system) which occurred under the United Bermuda Party Government ? a process which, among other things, resulted in the introduction of the middle school system to Bermuda.

I remember the new system was not universally endorsed by the educators and parents who took part in that large-scale reform process, with some pointing out the middle-school framework had proved unsuccessful in any number of other jurisdictions and was in fact in the process of being replaced in several countries.

Those reforms also resulted in the introduction of the mega-school concept to Bermuda ? first in the large, ungainly form of CederBridge Academy and now the newly completed Berkeley Institute.

There was much concern and public disquietude over the merits of creating such large schools, with many critics pointing out that such institutions went entirely against the grain of Bermuda's long and largely successful public education history.

And the initial problems encountered at CedarBridge ? problems largely revolving around student behaviour ? did not boost public confidence that this experminet was going to work (that's how many people viewed the introduction of mega-schools ? as grand social science/educational experiments with their children as the guinea pigs).

But the school did seem to settle down in the end and had been gathering pace before the recent mould scare caused it to temporarily shut its doors, a development which has clearly set things back a bit.

In light of the recent revelations about the failure rate among students in Bermuda's public schools, I think it is probably just a matter of time before another board of inquiry is convened and another wholesale study of Bermuda's educational system gets underway.

Some are already saying we should go back to the old, grammar school-based system but the question is: Can we? After all, it was an ongoing, extremely heated debate about the social ramifications of the old 11-plus exam and the divided academic/parochial school system that led to the last overhaul of the education system under the UBP and the introduction of middle-schools and mega-schools.

And today Bermuda and young Bermudians are facing fresh, entirely unprecedented challenges in terms of the educations they need in order to take their places in the island's increasingly globalised economy.

If we are going to remain competitive and carve out a place for Bermudians in the new economic order then we have to upgrade our educational system so our young people have a fighting chance to succeed in the new Bermudian economy.

The problem is that we have not been nearly revolutionary enough. We should always keep in sight our own goals in terms of education rather than allow consultants we bring in to define the parameters of our existence.

After all, we successfully rebuilt our own economy after the decline in tourism began to take its toll ? but we have not rebuilt our own education system with the same type of zeal, foresight and confidence to allow all of our people to take advantage of the new economic opportunities which now exist here.

At this stage, with our economic future firmly linked to the off-shore business sector, we should have some idea of where we want to go in terms of education reform and the restructuring our public school system. We need to be bold and pursue those policies that will be in our longterm best interests.