Minister for Education and Development Paula Cox is looking at the possibility of setting up a school for the performing arts - along with a new facility to teach financial services - in her bid to make the public system all things to all students.

During an interview with The Royal Gazette yesterday, she revealed her dream of seeing a specific school launched for the teaching of music, dance, theatre and visual arts and said a think tank committee had already met several times to consider its feasibility.

The Minister said she was soon to take the idea to Cabinet, but said if members agreed and the Progressive Labour Party won the upcoming General Election, she hoped to see something come to fruition by September next year.

"It's probably premature to get into details, but we have a committee which is meeting to explore the feasibility of how one would enshrine the idea of a performing arts school," said Ms Cox.

"Whether it would fit into the structure of the two senior schools or whether it's apart and separate from them is something they are looking at.

"I think it would be fabulous. The arts should not be marginalised. We can use the arts in how we express ourselves and children seem to develop intelligence more when they are exposed to the arts. "There is tremendous talent in Bermuda and I get the impression sometimes we are not reaping the benefit of all the talent that we have."

But Ms Cox said she also felt strongly that all children in Bermuda's public system should be given the opportunity to succeed, not matter what their strengths and weaknesses.

"We are supposed to be harnessing the giftedness in our students," she added. "We have to recognise that it takes a lot of different skills and talents to make a country and economy work. Not all students are academically brilliant, but they are brilliant in other areas, and that is what we need to grasp.

"This is very much part of the new BEST initiative - to make sure that all children in the public system are given an equal opportunity to succeed."

Ms Cox said a range of representatives were on the arts committee, including the Ministry, the two senior school principals and people from within the field.

And she said the idea had partly come about because musician Shine Hayward had been seconded to the Ministry for a while, and she said it had also been very obvious to see those schools in the system that had full-time teachers of the arts, as opposed to part-time teachers.

However, the Minister said she was also very keen to see a financial school launched on the Island to meet the needs of the local job market.

She said, again, the idea was in the early stages and a small group had already started to discuss the initiative.

The Minister said: "We are also looking at the possibility of a financial academy to meet the needs in the economy.

"There are wonderful things on the drawing boards for consultation and for us to contemplate, and meetings have already been held.

"I'm asking the group to decide how best it could work, but it's something that could be located at the college and could be more of a private sector thing, and a privately-funded initiative, because of the fact they would see a direct benefit."

Ms Cox said she thought the financial academy a great idea and and said there had been support expressed already from companies on the Island.

She said they were discussing whether the academy would be a post school facility, with some linkages to the senior school but a greater emphasis on the college, or some other set up.

And she the new facility may also provide classes for those people in the financial markets who wish to re-train.

The Minister added: "We have to make sure that if we say we are not producing enough in terms of young people in the job market, then we have to look at what we can do to re-jig and improve.

"If we are saying that children are not all academically gifted, then what are we offering to them because we have to do something about it.

"And if we are saying that we do not have young people with sufficient skills for jobs in the financial market, then what are we doing about that?"

Yesterday, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Charles Gosling welcomed the initial plans for a financial academy and said it was a cause he had trumpeted for a long time.

He said it was vital for students to have a knowledge base that would help them in today's work environment. "This is very, very encouraging," he said.

"If we expect them to perform well in the new financial environment, or in the smaller retail environments, there are particular needs that education is just not providing right now.

"So, it's very encouraging that they should actually look at providing something which is going to go a long way to answer these concerns."

However, Mr. Gosling said he would also like to see a greater number of stakeholders involved in the discussion, and said the Chamber of Commerce would jump at the chance.

And chairman of the International Business Forum, Jan Spiering, said he also very much welcomed the idea.

He said: "I have not heard of this initiative, but I definitely think it would be a good thing.

"One of the things that the Career Centre at Bermuda College was trying to do was to ensure that there was a better communication between the business community with regards what the requirements were, not just now but in the future.

"I think it's a great idea and I hope it does go forward."