The problems besetting education today stem from the fact that:

(1) Too many people, including some teachers, don't know what a teacher really is.

(2) Too many people believe that a school is a large fancy building.

(3) Too many people believe that all children are equally endowed with brains and talent.

(4) Too many people believe that they are experts when it comes to education but have little idea about what it really is.

(5) Too many people do not know what an education system is and how to change it.

What is a teacher really?

Some years ago an experiment was carried out whereby actors were given instructions on teaching a subject and placed into classrooms. The same subject was given to "qualified teachers" to teach another group of children with similar backgrounds. When both groups of children were tested the results from the children taught by the actors were better than those from the "teachers" group.

Teaching is the ability to get the client to: understand and grasp whatever concept one is trying to impart; to demonstrate it effectively and to teach it to another client. That is what teaching is about. The methodology is less important than the results and does not require a doctorate in "learning styles". A "real teacher" will devise some method, orthodox or unorthodox, of getting the client to understand, whatever concept he is attempting to teach.

The School Building

"Four walls do not a prison make"; neither does a large multi-million dollar complex make an educational institution, i.e. a school. However, a CedarBridge and a Berkeley can make an education prison.

Somehow we have gotten to the point where we equate a good education with a large complex building. This is patently false. The building can enhance the process but an incompetent teacher in a large modern complex building is still an incompetent teacher. A child having learning difficulties in a modern, sterilised complex is still a child at risk. The fact is that it has been proven that the learning process is enhanced by good, caring teachers, in a safe, comfortable environment, whether it be under a Pride of India tree or in a "CedarBridge".

Small schools are better environments, full stop!

Equality

That all children are equal and come to the school with equal talents and abilities is rubbish. We know that all people are not this way, yet we try to foist this notion on people.

Why is it acceptable for some schools to test and select their clients, expel them when they become behavioural problems or fail to perform academically; and for other schools to be forced to operate otherwise? Why cannot schools and classes be "streamed"? Do we not accept that some children can run faster than others? Do we not accept that some children have better "choir voices" while others must keep time? Can we responsibly expect our teachers, competent and incompetent, to deal with children having such a wide range of mental ability as well as those with major physical and social deficits?

Selectivity can, in my view, enhance the education process.

Examine all those educators and others who proclaim inclusiveness is the panacea and mark well what schools their children attend.

Everybody Knows Education

Educators have become the instrument of their own demise. Once we could depend on getting the best minds in the school system because the "peculiar institution" of racism in Bermuda dictated that education was one of the better professions for people of colour. Today, that is not so. Today education seems to follow the limerick:

There once was a lady from Asher

Whose knowledge became lesser and lesser

And just for a jest

She sat for the test

And now she's a College Professor

We have educators with doctorates in all facets of mediocrity. What do these qualifications really mean? We have become something of a laughing stock of the professions. Many of our teachers have transcripts which would make some of the "old" educators cringe. Many sport degrees from obscure colleges and the speech, writing and "department" of some of our "teachers" leave much to be desired. This, unfortunately, applies mainly to the public schools. The private schools can "get rid of their undesirables, both pupils and teachers, due to the amount of control they have over their system.

And so, everybody believes they know what is wrong with education and how to fix it. They have no respect for the educators or the teachers and this is passed on to the children who mirror the adults.

What an Education System really is

An Education System is like a massive juggernaut rumbling downhill. It has developed over centuries and has gained momentum over time taking on a life of its own. It is somewhat like "the Market" in the financial world. It has protection mechanisms which operate to destroy anyone who tries to make it change direction suddenly. One only has to look at the number of Permanent Secretaries, Ministers, Foreign Experts and other well-meaning individuals who have been destroyed or devoured by the System in their attempts to use radical surgery on the System. There have been studies initiated, papers produced, examinations undertaken, etc. which have all been shelved and periodically dusted off whenever questions arise on "the Education System and the need for an overhaul".

Has the introduction of the Middle School Concept changed the "Education System"? I think not.

What should have been done, if the movement of pupils from Primary to Secondary was one of the problems with the old system, it would have been more cost effective and better, educationally to operate the first two years of Secondary School on the lines of the Primary School. In other words, Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 should have been operated much like Primary 7 with a limited number of teachers interacting with the new pupils and limited pupil movement between classes.

It may have been necessary for some physical alterations or additions to the Secondary Schools but it certainly would not have cost the public a "CedarBridge or a Berkeley".

No radical measures will change the direction of "the Education System". The change must be attempted in small, incremental steps. The juggernaut can only change direction gradually,

Back to Basics

It matters not what the teachers are given to teach, a good teacher will effectively teach whatever he is given. Whether it is "Writing to Read", "The Initial teaching alphabet", "phonics method","GCE","GCSE", "Cambridge", "Oxford", etc., a teacher will teach it. So Educators need only to sit down with the teachers and decide once and for all what the Ministry and the teachers want to teach, set up the training, if it is necessary and then let teachers get on with the job of teaching.

The Ministry must cut down on some of the useless workshops it forces teachers to attend during school terms and keep the teachers in the classrooms teaching, as that is what they do.

Ensure that teachers entering the profession have attained an acceptable level of achievement. Prospective teachers with transcripts with heavy doses of "d's and c's should be rejected as well as qualifications from unacceptable "colleges".

Every profession should be accountable. Set up in the Ministry an "Accountability Unit". Every teacher in the system must be "inspected" (call it what you will), once a year by the Ministry.

Teachers who are identified as weak or ineffective should be asked to seek other employment.

Rearrange the Ministry to reflect the fact that Bermuda has a total population of 65,000 to 70,000 people with a student population of much less than that. In other words, cut the Ministry to the bare bones. This will have little or no effect on the "System".

An Old "Teacher"