So, we finally got our hands and ears on that education review, which was commissioned by the current Minister of Education, The Hon. K.H. Randolph Horton, JP, MP. From conversations that I have had with many people in the community, I am not the only person who was not surprised at the failing grade given to teachers; schools; the middle school system; the curriculum; and last but definitely not least (and probably the biggest offender) Senior Ministry Staff, who the report suggested should be sacked immediately.While many of the teachers received poor grades, many more of them are actually doing well and some of them have, over the past 10-15 years, made similar recommendations to those contained in the review, only to have their ideas shot down by the antiquated, dead wood that was at the time leading the Ministry of Education. This is a familiar theme.

More on all of this, after the Top 20.

Holding down the top spot in the Bermuda Top 20 is This Is Why I’m Hot, by Mims. Improving to number two is Glamourous by Fergie featuring Ludacris. Fergie is at the top of her game these days. She can be found on the cover and inside all the top magazines, her hit song is on every radio station. Tumbling to number three is Buddyby Musiq Soulchild, one of the most talented artists around. Falling to number four is I’m A Flirt, by R Kelly featuring T.I. and T-Pain. This is a cool track with very catchy lyrics. Improving at number five iI>Go Getta<$>, by Young Jeezy featuring R Kelly, a kicking hip hop tune. Falling to number six is Last Night by Diddy featuring Keishia ColGive It To Me, by Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake, advances to number seven this week. If you haven’t heard this one, seek it out because it slams. Up to number eight is Don’t Matter by Akon, a former essential new jam. Say It Right by Nelly Furtado falls to number nine.

Now this week’s essential new joint. New and improving at number 10 is Like A Boy by Ciara. Slipping to number 11 is Jennifer Hudson, with her monster hit, And I Am Telling You. I am aware of approximately five dance mixes, which are keeping this track high in the charts.

Up to number 12 is a banging new track, Buy You A Drank (Shorty Snappin), by T pain featuring Young Joc. Soaring to number 13 is a killer dance track, Auttic <$>by Ultra Nate. This dance diva has a string of hits after her name that stretches over a period of nearly 20 years.

Jumping to number 14 is With Love by Hillary Duff, a kicking house track that will make you dance. Quietly advancing to number 15 is Beautiful Liar by Beyonce and Shakira. Falling to numb16 is You, by Lloyd featuring L’il Wayne.

Now some more new joints. In at number 17 is Because of You, the new one from Ne-yo, one of the hottest, smoothest and most creative young male artists in the business.

New at number 18 is Pop, Lock & Drop it by Huey. Joining the list at number 19 is Pegate, a smoking dance tune by Ricky Martin. Its good to see him back in the spotlight. Lastly, rounding things out at number 20 is a new one from Lloyd, Get it Shawty. You have to hate the spelling that some of these inner city dudes like to use with their Ebonics, but it is what it is. However, the song kicks.

Now back to this week’s word - Bermuda’s Public Education System.

Jesus once said, “Suffer the little children, to come unto me”. Part of his intent was to celebrate and express the importance of children. Adults and society have a duty to provide a first class standard of education for ALL children.

We are clearly not doing that.

Although I am trying to resist the temptation to restate the findings of the review, which have been well-publicised by all local media, I am still stunned by the quantification of problems most Bermuda residents perceived but which they could only provide anecdotal evidence for. Therefore, I will try to summarise them and the recommendations as briefly as possible, hopefully in one paragraph.

The Education Ministry’s top personnel are inadequate leaders and should be sacked immediately. The Board of Education is ineffective. School principals are generally effective in administrating their schools, but they do not manage performance and don’t assure that the quality of teaching and learning are at acceptable standards. Teachers have low expectations and limited teaching skill; and one quarter of the lessons are inadequate. In comparison with the US, Bermuda places in the bottom tier of graduation rates overall as well as for black students. The minimum grade point score is below US levels. The average reading standard is lower in M1 than in P6. Primary schools received the best marks, but they too have much room for improvement, specifically with teachers’ low expectations and with too many students in Reading Recovery in P2. Our kids are starting out way behind their international peers. Only just over a third of public schools in Bermuda are good, in terms of their effectiveness. Middle schools are the least effective.

Since I am a positive person who prefers to spend more time on solutions than problems, I will not name some of the people who are partly responsible for the current education system.

However, anybody who was either a Premier, a Minister of Education, a Permanent Secretary of Education, a Chief Education Officer, a Senior Education Officer, or anyone who held any senior position at the Ministry of Education between 1985 and 2005 must shoulder some of the blame for what we have today as a public education system. A number of teachers as well, especially those who have not been totally committed to educating our children, have erred in a major way.

These people have committed unforgiveable sins. I was discussing this (like everyone else) with a group of friends and we surmised that what these people have done is the equivalent of genocide.

By their decisions, actions and in some cases their failure to make decisions or act, they have ruined the lives of two or three generations of Bermudians. You should see the standard of reading and writing of kids coming out of our schools! You would wonder how these kids managed to actually graduate!

Although it would be fair to say that the PLP Government has done nothing about it until now, some nine years after they became the Government, the PLP Government has at least taken steps to reverse a trend that both started and flourished on the UBP’s watch.

The fact that so many of his predecessors failed to address this makes Minister Randy Horton look like a saviour, for the review was conducted on his watch. However, he will be judged (fortunately for him, not by the PLP Southampton Branch) on what he does with the report, the information and the recommendations contained therein.

So, we now have formal, official, written confirmation, by a “foreign expert” (God I HATE that term - but Bermudians seem to need it before acting) that our public education system sucks.

Interestingly, some school principals and teachers have been making similar suggestions to those in the review, for the past several years, but their cries fell on deaf ears. What else were they to do? And what are we going to do about this current state of affairs, now that we have all the evidence?

For starters, the various groups and individuals targeted and identified by the report as having failed must not become defensive and try to explain what they did and why. We don’t need to hear that; the facts are there, in the report, in the graduation percentages and in the standard of students that the public system is releasing into the community, many of whom can barely read, write or do basic arithmetic.

Freddy Evans, President of the Association of Principals, this week began challenging the validity of the report, questioning the length of time they took to prepare it among other things. Notwithstanding any of that (and I like Freddy, he is a cool cat), we didn’t need the report to prove to us that things are bad. All you have to do is open your eyes, or try to employ one of these kids fresh out of our high schools. The report has merely quantified and formalised what every Bermuda resident already knew. So going on the defensive isn’t the answer. Moving forward is both the answer and the solution.

For starters, we should implement all 10 recommendations without fear or favour.

The Minister and the Public Service Commission must work together to remove the persons identified for “early retirement”, forget that they might be well-known to us and bring in more competent people. The Premier said it best when he said, “Education is costing over $100 million dollars and is producing dummies. I can get dummies for free”.

Although I am not (and don’t want to sound like) a “Brown Noser”, that remark was too good to resist repeating and stating in this review. Therefore, the Ministry, the teachers, the principals, the schools and the curriculum all need massive overhauls, major surgery, total reconstruction and relaunching.

We must now be willing to make the difficult and unpopular decisions, which may be painful for the minority, but will please the majority. We must do this for our sake, for our children, for our future and for Bermuda.

Peace —