Bermuda College is taking steps to enhance its teacher training and course structure in a bid to improve test scores - which in some subjects have remained woefully lacking.

President Dr. Michael Orenduff said for the past two years, since joining the college, he had monitored the exam success of each lecturer and each subject to determine where development and attention was needed.

He said in the summer of 2001, the average pass rate for all students was about 67 percent, which was way below what he wanted.

Steps were immediately taken to ensure teachers had the training and materials necessary, and to make sure that students were placed on the right courses that suited their needs.

As a result, the average pass rate went up to 81 percent last summer.

But Dr. Orenduff said while the overall success of students was pleasing and much improved, he still had some concerns about specific areas.

And top of those departments were maths, some areas of English, a biology class, hospitality and food science.

One maths teacher saw only two out of 11 students pass last summer, a success rate of just 18 percent.

A biology teacher, with just three students in a class, had two of them fail.

And a maths teacher with 20 in a class, saw 15 fail.

In some classes, English also did not fare too well.

One teacher with three students, had one of them fail, while another with six in a class, had two of them fail.

Last year, out of a total of 304 maths students, 113 failed; and out of 262 English students, 64 failed.

However, on the brighter side, many classes did do well, with pass rates in the 70, 80 and 90 percent brackets.

History, computer and technical skills, accounting, insurance, Spanish, art history and e-commerce were all fairly successful.

But the highest pass rate in the college belonged to those classes dealing with trades, such as plumbing, wood technology and heating, ventilation and air conditioning, which have all had 100 percent pass rates.

But Dr. Orenduff said with further improvements over the last year, he hoped this year would see greater pass rates for the college.

"There has been a long-term attitude in university lecturers generally, not just here, that they they don't have responsibility for student learning," said the president.

"They have believed that their main responsibility is to be an expert in their subject matter and that of the people who come to university, some will get it and some won't, and if people don't get it, then it's too bad.

"But community colleges are founded on the principle that this is not acceptable. It's not enough to be a subject matter expert, but we also have to be teachers, tutors, mentors and coaches. We have to work with students to make sure they pass."

Dr. Orenduff said the college had recognised that, and while it accepted that it would never get a 100 percent pass rate in every class, everyone wanted to do everything possible to see students succeed.

"We have to ask where and how can we do a better job," said Dr. Orenduff.

"We want to work together with the students to increase their success rate, and that is what we agreed to do in the new collective bargaining agreement, so we are continuing to monitor the grades.

"It's not a punitive thing - it's working together to improve the pass rate. The average was 81 percent last year, which was a huge increase on the year before, but it varies a lot by individual and discipline.

"So, while we have a lot of lecturers we can pat on the back and congratulate, we have some people who need to be worked on."

The president said he was happy with the overall pass rate, but wanted to see individual classes improve, which would raise the average, anyway.

He said a person had been employed to coordinate instructional development at the college and her job was to work with the faculty to improve strategies and development, as well as to ensure that each class had the right books and materials.

"It's not all on the lecturers' heads though," he added.

"We have to look at how lecturers are doing things, yes, but we also must make sure we are placing students on the right courses; we need to look at class size, and, of course, students have to turn up and be committed.

"There are a lot of things that go into student success, not just the faculty, but we must remember that the faculty have control over a lot of elements.

"With further work, we should see the college and the students get to where they should be."