If schoolchildren could vote they might not be too keen on one of the United Bermuda Party's ideas for educational reform — longer school days.

But Grant Gibbons, the party's education spokesman, insists that extending the day to 5 p.m. or 5.30 p.m. could have huge benefits for older students losing interest in education — and the extra time wouldn't all be spent in the classroom.

"A lot of us, when we went to school many years ago, had a lot more time for sports and other activities, music and the arts," he said.

"A lot of children seem to disappear between S1 and S4. We could spend part of the extra time doing extra tutoring and giving extra help and we could look at staggering the times that teachers came in."

The idea is just one of a number that Dr. Gibbons, who has held the shadow education portfolio for the last seven months, says his party will be looking at if its wins the General Election on December 18.

Another is increasing teachers' pay.

"We may need to pay teachers a little bit more to get some of the best members of the community into teaching," he said. "I think it's important that it really gets the respect it deserves."

Firm promises from the party start at pre-school and extend to Bermuda College and beyond.

Dr. Gibbons said pre-school education would be extended and improved. "We think that a lot could be done to enhance the pre-school experience," he added. "The first step is to make it so that as many children as possible would be able to do it.

"We think this concept of school readiness is an important one."

Social promotion — whereby children move on to the next school year even if they fail their exams — would be abolished under a UBP government and an independent authority to assess schools on an annual basis would be instated.

An external review of Bermuda College would take place because, according to Dr. Gibbons, the college is currently operating at "way below its carrying capacity" and is failing badly on the technical education front.

The UBP — which closed down the Island's Technical Institute decades ago — would open a national technical training institute at the college and start technical education at middle school.

Dr. Gibbons said huge changes to the public school system were needed, as indicated in the damning Hopkins report published earlier this year, with improved teaching first on the agenda.

But he said his party would go about making change "very, very differently" to the PLP.

"There has to be communication and consensus and buy-in. We'd take the report and go back to the groups (working on change) and have a broad discussion with the community."