The Ministry of Education has had a “poisonous atmosphere” for years and its senior staff are to blame alleged former Education Minister Terry Lister last night.

Speaking during the motion to adjourn — where the recent education review was the hot topic — he said: “I have sat on the sidelines for some months and watched this process with some interest. They have been extremely brave, the Minister and the Premier, to take this on.

“I have been accused before of being more interested in photo opportunities while I was minister but I had to show the public what we were doing right.

“I did that, I highlighted the positives. I thought we needed to build some confidence in public education.

“When I stepped into education I found a poisonous atmosphere at the top.”

“I would listen to the advice I was being given and know the advice was not good and didn’t make sense.

“It also bothered me that teachers didn’t send their students to public schools it showed me there wasn’t a personal commitment to the system.”

Mr. Lister was Minster of Education from January 2004 till September 2006.

The review, which was unveiled last week, stated the Ministry of Education is a “secretive” and “paternalistic” organisation that “stifles” progress in education.

It also found the quality of teaching is poor and has contributed to the “widespread under-performance” in public schools and recommended that Principals need to be better leaders and spend time in classrooms to address the “culture of low expectations and lacklustre teaching”.

Opposition spokesman for education Grant Gibbons said the review was another example of the Progressive Labour Party does not trusting Bermudians.

He said: “The recent education report was done be overseas experts but said things that local teachers and principals have been saying for years.

“I do not have a problem with the findings or the recommendations in the report but the the Government has called people from overseas to do. They do not trust Bermudians.”

He pointed to the fact that they had brought people in from overseas to run the Bermuda College, take top jobs in the hospital and prisons as well as compile the education report and said it illustrated they did not trust people who have grown up in Bermuda and understand the issues.

But Immigration Minister Derrick Burgess said the Island had thrived thanks to help from overseas consultants and asked Mr. Gibbons to point to successful large businesses who had not benefited from bringing people from overseas.

>Minister of Education Randy Horton<$> said he was dismayed that the Opposition was attempting to turn the lives of Bermuda’s youth into a political football and had hoped they Members of Parliament would work together to fix the situation - instead of attacking one another.

He said: “This report had nothing to do with political point scoring or a looming election. What it had to do with the fact that too many of our children were failing to graduate.

“And that our young people were not reaching standards of excellence, We have a crisis situation and we are doing something about it.

“I hope that we will not use the future of Bermuda, our students, and our teachers as political.

“I thought this might happen and that is what you are trying to do.”

He went on to refute Mr. Gibbons point that the education review team was comprised of only expats and pointed out that Bermudian Dr. Lou Matthews and Rhonda Woods-Smith worked alongside the three overseas experts.

He also said the Ministry cared about the teachers and was pleased that many have expressed a willingness and desire to improve and fix the system. He also reiterated that he planned to table the full report as soon as possible and make copies available to the public.

Opposition member Maxwell Burgess said he was worried that he would be leaving public service - he plans to retire and not run in the next general election - with the educational system still in shambles.

“This is not about PLP, UBP, Government it is about the children of Bermuda and it will be for the public of Bermuda to see if the Government do or do not improve the system and listen to the recommendations.”B>Former Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell<$>, himself a graduate of the Island’s public school system, said Government had failed to act to cure the education crisis for nine years.

“This PLP government didn’t do what they were required to do,” he said. “They may now be resolved on the eve of a general election to be brave. It feels like a chapter of Don Quixote because they have wasted so much time.”

Mr. Darrell added: “The great tragedy has been the profound waste of time. Nine years of inactivity and they have just discovered that we have a crisis in public education.”

Government backbencher Renee Webb replied that the Opposition had 30 years to improve education but failed to do so. “We are on year nine. It doesn’t matter that it took the Government nine years to do it. The Government is doing it. The whole country should be behind the Education Minister on this.”

Ms Webb quoted a speech she gave in the House of Assembly last year on education, adding that she pre-empted much of what was in the Hopkins report.

“I was attacked for that speech,” she said. “I was attacked mercilessly by the media for saying that teachers should be held accountable. The union came out and attacked me. I feel totally vindicated. We were not doing enough.”

She said cuts had to be made at the much-criticised Ministry of Education. “Some people have to go. I know that the permanent secretary has been moved. She’s been moved to another department. We can’t do it for everybody. I say ‘Minister, go for it’. We can’t keep putting the education of our children at risk.”Deputy Opposition Leader Patricia Gordon-Pamplin<$> said nine years of failing to act had seen opportunities for the Island’s children “stifled and snuffed out”.

And she said Ms Webb must take some responsibility for that as a former member of Cabinet. She said for her to say that it didn’t matter that nothing had been done until now by the PLP was the equivalent of saying “so what”.

Acting Premier Paula Cox said pointing the finger of blame was not the way to bring about change. “It doesn’t help to demonise or dehumanise those who are in the system,” she said.

The Finance Minister added that the education recommendations should be implemented in conjunction with those from Bermuda Education Strategic Team (BEST), a group set up several years ago to help improve standards.