Bermuda Education Network

The Government’s consultation process about parent involvement in public education continues to raise some interesting issues. At Bermuda Education Network, the process has caused us to do a lot of thinking about public engagement and the need for an organisation to promote parent advocacy and give PTAs some direction and support.

As soon as the current consultation process began, we reached out to our members and supporters asking them to speak out on governance and accountability issues. We attended Town Hall meetings, contacted PTAs and visited schools, posted on our website and Facebook page and called parents, teachers and principals asking: “Are you satisfied with the status quo? Now is your chance to deliver feedback to Government about parent involvement in running schools!”

The response was fairly limited and we decided that this meant two things — firstly a need for awareness raising and secondly, while many parents and community members want change in our education system, most of them don’t want to speak out in case they are in the minority. Regrettably, we feel unable to proceed with a panel discussion that we had hoped would advance understanding about the true role of PTAs and Governing boards. (Our Panel Discussion today has been cancelled because we have been unable to get suitable education leaders in the government system to take part.)

Our observation on all of this is that a huge amount of capacity building needs to take place. This will be a marathon — not a sprint. It cannot be led by the MOED. It will take years of awareness building, consultation and community organising and must take into account the particular challenges of the highly political environment of the Bermuda Public School System. It will take a group of highly engaged and motivated citizens.

We found some interesting commentary about the type of citizens who will be needed to lead this process. Westheimer and Kahne describe two kinds of citizens “participatory” and “justice-oriented” in their influential article, “What Kind of Citizen” (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004, p. 239).

Participatory citizens believe that:

“ ... to solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership positions within established systems and community structures ...”

While justice-oriented citizens believe that one must:

“ ... question, debate, and change established systems and structures that reproduce patterns of injustice over time.”

We strongly believe that we need to build a society where the contributions of both types of citizens are respected. We need justice-oriented citizens to join in the campaign for transparency and accountability in our public education system. It will not be handed to us — they are rights that have to be fought for. Time and time again, it has been clearly demonstrated that there are too many vested interests in our education system for any real “reform” to take place. Although anonymous website forums and letters to the Editor proliferate and fuel the rumour mill about what’s really going on, important issues get swept under the carpet.

The recent government consultation about school governance is a start, but much more needs to be done. Over the past several years, much has been said about how PTAs need to stop seeing themselves as fundraisers, but no clear explanation of how PTAs should see themselves. Where should parents go to find clear guidance on what a PTA is supposed to do? We’ve checked the Education statutes and there isn’t even a list of responsibilities or requirements. The Bermuda Parent Teacher Student Association is potentially a resource for advancing this conversation. Other community groups involved in parenting need to step in and help.

At Bermuda Education Network, we have decided to take a longer term approach to all of this. In the coming years we hope to include initiatives to promote citizenship education. Few people would disagree that there is a profound civic empowerment gap in Bermuda as large, and as disturbing as the achievement gap in Math and English: schools should be addressing this gap. The following statement made about the US, could just as easily apply here: “Citizens with low or moderate incomes speak with a whisper that is lost on the ears of inattentive government, while the advantaged roar with the clarity and consistency that policymakers readily heed” (APSA Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy, 2004, p. 651).

Bermuda needs to help our young people to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives. That’s how we’ll ensure that when it’s their turn to participate in a government consultation about a social issue, they have the skills, knowledge and attitudes to do some real problem solving.