Government will set up a board within three weeks to oversee a major restructuring of Bermuda’s underfire education system, Premier Ewart Brown said last night.

The move is one of ten recommendations for change following a hard-hitting review into why four of the Island’s public schools are failing and most of the others are merely satisfactory or worse.

Dr. Brown told a Progressive Labour Party meeting at Clearwater School, St. David’s, that a chairman had already been lined up to head the new interim executive board.

The board is intended to implement the recommendations of the review and act for Government in reforming the Ministry of Education. Its task will be to develop a three-year strategic plan encompassing the review.

Dr. Brown vowed that Government would act immediately on the findings released last week by the team of experts led by British Professor David Hopkins. “What you see recommended by this review team represents the potential for more change than we have seen in the education system in the last 30 years,” said the Premier.

“The question is: Will we implement the recommendations? The answer is yes.

“We took some steps today to respond. Within the next two or three weeks, the interim executive board recommended by the review team will be formed.

“We identified a chairman for it today. I think you will all be pleased when you know who that chairman is. It’s an indication that we mean business.”

Prof. Hopkins’ team visited each of the Island’s public schools in March and discovered that a quarter of lessons are taught inadequately, the curriculum is inconsistent and principals are failing to ensure quality teaching. They recommended a host of measures including sacking senior Ministry staff, bringing in external assessors to improve teaching standards and introducing staff performance reviews.

St. George’s MP Dean Foggo, a former teacher, told the meeting parents could help raise standards. “Recommendation ten is about ensuring parents are effective in their role,” said Mr. Foggo.

“Those students that are performing at the high end have parental involvement.

“I want to encourage you as parents and as uncles and aunts to realise the responsibility in your hands.”