The curriculum in the Island's public schools received a failing grade yesterday from a Government official.

Gary Burgess, programme co-ordinator at the Department of Cultural Affairs, lambasted the curriculum as inconsistent, non-educational and in dire need of an upgrade during a speech at the Hamilton Lions Club yesterday.

"Primary school kids are so motivated, they enjoy doing everything and they have fresh minds," said Dr. Burgess, who is also co-ordinator of this year's Bermuda Day Parade.

"But when they leave primary school and go on to middle school then it falls apart. Because of the curriculum, after they finish middle school they are going different ways," he said.

Dr. Burgess said that what students learn in class should be planned out by a curriculum specialist and not by teachers.

"Maybe some teachers put down what they want to teach and it is not educational," he said. "A curriculum is very important so that the teacher knows what he has to teach and teaches it."

In the field of music, Dr. Burgess said there was little dedicated teaching done at the middle school level.

"In the US they teach music all year for four to five years in the same way as English," he said.

"For the arts, if you do not catch them when they are young then they would not change when they were old."

Dr. Burgess returned to the Island five years ago after living abroad for 44 years.