An education expert from the UK is to lead a ?painfully thorough? urgent review into Bermuda?s crisis-hit schools system.

Professor David Hopkins, of the Institute of Education in London, will head a team of at least five investigators carrying out a probe from March, Education Minister Randy Horton announced in the House of Assembly yesterday.

The group will create a strategy for education, focussing on issues including quality of leadership, standards of teaching and learning and special needs provision. It comes after figures revealed in January showed less than half of final year students graduated last summer.

Prof. Hopkins has a wealth of experience sitting on education bodies around the world and was Chief Advisor on School Standards for the UK?s Department for Education and Skills for three years.

Mr. Horton told the House urgent action was needed to improve education in Bermuda. ?There is the familiar adage that if you keep on doing the same thing, the same way, you will continue to get the same results.

?Quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, the results on graduation rates that I delivered just a few days ago are not good enough. I cannot, I will not, in good conscience under my tenure as Minister, allow the non-achievement of our children to continue.

?There is a belief in this Island that public education is in crisis. I will not stand idly by and allow that perception to continue.?

Mr. Horton described Prof. Hopkins as ?a scholar and researcher of considerable renown?.

He is a Fellow at the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne, and has also served as chairman of the Leicester City Partnership Board, and Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, in England.

He was Chief Advisor on School Standards in the UK under three Secretaries of State from 2002 to 2005.

?Professor Hopkins?s immense stature and experience in the realm of education and his acknowledged expertise are indicative of the seriousness that the Government attaches to the forthcoming review,? said Mr. Horton. ?We were determined to secure an outstanding individual to lead the review. We have found him in the person of Professor Hopkins. We have secured the services of an individual well-versed in all aspects of education.?

The Minister said the team would provide a ?systematic approach? to the review.

?We need to understand clearly what is needed and then we need to set about putting the remedies in place,? he said.

?We have no time to play with this matter. We are past the sense of urgency. Time is of the essence. We must act now.?

As part of its investigation, the team will visit schools, review education legislation and invite the public to e-mail suggestions about the way forward. ?The review process will be thorough, extremely thorough, perhaps painfully thorough,? said Mr. Horton.

He said the team would report its findings by the end of April, and that changes would be implemented when the next school year begins in September.

Last June, 48 percent of final year public education students graduated ? up from 43 percent the previous year and 38 percent in 2004.

Announcing the results last month, Mr. Horton acknowledged the slight improvement but condemned the failure of half the students as a ?totally unacceptable situation?.