Government backbencher Renee Webb yesterday launched a scathing attack on Bermuda?s public school system ? singling out teachers for the harshest criticism.

The outspoken former PLP minister gave a rousing speech on the ?disturbing? state of the Island?s public schools during a House of Assembly debate on education.

Her claims that money was being wasted on a system from which 45 percent of students do not graduate were met with shouts of approval and stamping feet from the Opposition side of the House.

Ms Webb suggested tackling the problem by basing teachers? salaries on performance and producing a league table of results for individual schools.

?At what point do we recognise the problem?? she demanded of Education Minister Terry Lister, after he delivered his budget brief for the Ministry of Education. ?Are we going to wait until 90 percent fail before we say we have a problem?

?Who is being held accountable and how? What are we doing wasting money? The truth is we have too many mediocre teachers in the system.?

She said it was a disgrace that a system which had a child/teacher ratio of seven to one could not produce better results. ?If I was in the education system I would feel ashamed of that fact,? she said.

?There is nothing wrong with our children. I would venture to say there is something wrong with our educators. We are failing our students in this country.?

She suggested that those in charge of education on the Island ? whom, she claimed, went all over the world on learning expeditions ? should visit Bermuda?s private schools to ?see what they are doing right?.

She claimed the cost of educating a child in the public school system was almost $18,000 a year ? some $6,000 more than the average private school annual fee.

That figure ? also quoted by members of the UBP ? is based on the amount in the Budget allocated for public schools ($111m) divided by the number of students in the system (6,221).

Mr. Lister later claimed the actual cost of educating a child in a public school was just under $12,000.

Ms Webb said: ?Government continues to give more money to education year in and year out. We are paying $18,000 per student and we accept the fact that over 45 percent are failing.

?I want to know what are we going to do about it. Throwing money at it is not the answer. We are not getting the performance that we should.

?We are going to be in serious trouble if we don?t fix the education system.?

Earlier, Shadow Education Minister Neville Darrell highlighted the rising cost of public education, pointing out that the overall amount in the Budget for education and development had risen from $72.6 million in 1999/2000 to $114.7 million for the coming year.

?We all believe that public education is such that if you have to spend the money to get the value, you spend the money to get the value,? he said. ?The real question is what are we getting for the money we are spending in education?

?The truth of the matter is that 45 percent of students don?t graduate.?

Mr. Darrell said despite an increased number of teachers in the system ? 873 in 2005/6 compared to 854 in 20004/05 ? pupils? test scores were not improving.

And though there was a decrease in pupils from 2004/05 to 2005/6 ? from 6,370 to 6,221 ? the cost of education continued to rise.

Deputy UBP Leader Maxwell Burgess was blunt in his critique of the system. ?Public education is in trouble,? he said, adding that the less high school graduates Bermuda produced, the more it was going to have to rely on foreigners for its workforce.

He said the Government had failed to produce a road map which would allow the country to look back on ?these dark days? in the near future.

?I?m telling you it?s unacceptable,? he said. ?It will come back to haunt all of us.?

Mr. Lister later defended public school teachers and the Government?s methods for ensuring high teaching standards.

?They don?t deserve to be flogged,? he said. ?They don?t deserve to be put in one big whipping bowl.?

He added: ?I think we are doing a lot to raise the bar here. We are doing a lot to ensure teachers are coming forward in the way they should.

?All teachers are evaluated regularly. There is an annual review that takes place. Where a teacher is falling down they are placed on review. Once under review we work with that teacher to improve their skills.

?I want to encourage our teachers to raise their professional standards, to raise the bar on an individual basis. I?m asking my teachers to raise their professional standards in their classroom, so they can produce the best students and the best results.?

In an interview with last week, the Minister himself seemed to place some of the blame for the failing public school system on teachers.

He told this newspaper that teachers these days had far smaller class sizes than in the past and an abundance of resources.

The Minister was responding to a claim by Berkeley Institute teacher David Chapman that public schools were under-resourced and teachers had to pitch to the middle ground.

?The responsibility really does lie with the teachers to exploit the materials that are available to them,? said Mr. Lister. ?The curriculum should pitch to the middle so that we include everyone but we should be reaching down and reaching up.?

Bermuda Union of Teachers could not be contacted for comment last night. But Livingston Tuzo, president of the Association of School Principals, described Ms Webb?s ?sweeping statements? as ?an indictment?.

The association is expected to put out a statement formally responding to the criticisms today.