Former Premier Sir John Swan's New Year's wish list covered much of the waterfront, so to speak, but one issue stood out.

Sir John rightly said "the ability to close the achievement gap, in my view, is the greatest civil rights issue of our generation".

"There is nothing more important than to help our children come to the table ready and willing to partake in a meaningful and beneficial way of the opportunities that are presented," he said. "I wish for the New Year to see innovative ideas developed to raise the standard of education, particularly in our public schools."

The issue starts with public education, but cannot stop there. Training and retraining, both for professions and for the trades, needs to be continuous and is essential if Bermudians are to benefit from the growing economy and if the Island is to retain its competitive edge.

The statistics back this up. The median income for whites in Bermuda is 37 percent higher than its for blacks. When expatriates are taken out of the figures, whites earn 29 percent more, so the gap narrows, but remains far too wide.

It would be easy to blame this on racism, either institutional or overt, and certainly no one should discount this as a potential cause.

But it has been demonstrated time and time again that income is most closely tied to educational attainment, and the statistics in Bermuda bear this out.

The Census in 2000 showed 32 percent of white adults had university degrees while 12 percent of blacks did. If expatriates are excluded, the number of white Bermudians with degrees falls to 23 percent while the number of blacks remains more or less constant at 11 percent.

At that time, the median income of people with a Bermuda Secondary School Certificate or its equivalent as their highest level of educational attainment was $33,000. For those with Bachelor's degrees it was $54,000 per year in 2000, a 60 percent jump. For those with doctorates, it was around $75,000 — more than double the high school leaver.

So it is no great surprise that if white residents of Bermuda are generally better educated, then their income is higher as well.

It's worth remembering that it's not just professionals with degrees who tend to earn more, but skilled tradesmen as well. From that perspective, the National Training Board has done sterling work in the last few years under the leadership of Education Minister Terry Lister, the officers in the department and with support from companies in the trades. In time, this will show fruit, but it needs to be expanded.

Mr. Lister seems to face greater challenges in academic education. But there is no doubt that standards need to be raised. The decision to go back to GCSEs as a basic high school leaving certificate is a step in the right direction as it is an internationally recognised qualification.

Ending social promotion, which Mr. Lister has promised to do, is also vital.

More broadly, promoting education as an end in itself is key. Too many students drop out of school early only to regret their mistakes later, and sometimes much too late.

The reality is that Bermuda's economy has changed, and regardless of any possible improvements in tourism, which required a different skill set from international business, the need for qualified and highly skilled professionals and tradespeople has never been higher. But the opportunities — with education — have never been greater either.