Senators from all sides yesterday urged Government to get a grip on education which is siphoning off huge amounts of public money but failing to deliver.

United Bermuda Party Senator Bob Richards pointed out that the taxpayer spent $19,000 per year on each student but as pupil numbers declined the costs went up.

Too much emphasis had been put on boosting IT while the forgetting about the pupils.

And Government Senate Leader David Burch said education had been given enough funding.

"You are a prime candidate for true zero-based budgeting."

Urging reform, he quoted the Nike advertising campaign slogan: "Just do it."

Opposition Senate Leader Kim Swan agreed that a lot was being spent on Education ? with the budget jumping from $48.4 million in 2002/03 to $67.4 million this year.

"That's a 71 percent increase within a five year window."

And he said jobs had leapt by 146 within that ministry in the same time frame.

Money for Berkeley had doubled from $5 million to $10 million while CedarBridge Academy spending had gone from $11.3 million to $15.47 million.

He said he was worried about education at the primary school level.

Sen. Richards said education had been like the heading for the ice berg for years but only now was Government pressing the alarm button.

Yet he pointed out that Jennifer Smith had ridden to power in 1998 on the back of education.

"We have seen that ice berg out there for a long time."

But he said a combination of complacency and the scale of the task resulted in the problems now becoming evident such as poor graduation rates.

He said the Opposition wanted vouchers to help families put children through an approved pre-school. "If children don't go to pre-school they find themselves struggling later on.

Everybody had screwed up in education said Sen. Richards who said the finger pointing had to stop.

He said his side had erred by getting rid of the Technical Institute which had produced captains of industry.

"They had to be doing something right."

Extracurricular activities were useful in keeping reluctant students motivated said Sen. Richards who urged Government to lengthen the school day so more could be fitted in.

Schools needed to be more accountable with more power held by school boards and principals, like the private schools, rather than the bureaucrats said Sen. Richards.

He said too many talented educators had been sucked into head office rather than working out in the field where they could mould Bermuda's youngsters.

Principals were the key people in effecting change said Sen. Richards.

"If I had my way I would pay them top dollar. They are the ones getting their butts kicked and having to kick butt."

Sen. Richards said when he was at Berkeley the school was focused on beating the other schools in its results and he said competition between the schools should be encouraged by publishing results.

Teacher certification needed to be fully implemented said Sen. Richards.

Attorney General Philip Perinchief, a former teacher, said it had been a mistake to abolish the eleven plus test entirely and an element of it should have been kept on.

He said Berkeley had been a centre of excellence which had sent students straight to Oxford and Cambridge and McGill. "We must have been doing something right."

Independent Senator Carol Anne Bassett said there could be no sacred cows in the education review which Government had sanctioned and if people were resistant to change they could be "managed out the door."

Senator Burch also agreed there would be no sacred cows and he urged educators to buy into the process and keep the best interests of the children at the forefront of their minds.

He thanked the Opposition for keeping the debate non-partisan and said: "It's a national crisis and we must come together."