Keisha Douglas knows her stuff when it comes to public schools.

The new president of the Bermuda Union of Teachers has worked in education for 13 years, mainly as a teacher but also as a mathematics adviser at the Ministry of Education.

She was made union representative at the Berkeley Institute on her first day in the job and says she has a great rapport with teachers and students.

Right now, as the election grows closer, teachers are telling her they are not happy.

They came in for heavy criticism in the Hopkins report — a review of public schools published in the summer — and now feel left out of the plan for change, according to Ms Douglas.

"I think the burning issue right now is what's happening post-review," she said. "The review came out and it was damning in my opinion, to teachers, even to the Ministry.

"I guess people were in limbo. They wanted to know what was going to happen, what was going down.

"We are still all in limbo as to what's actually happening. I guess from the new government we want to know what's coming down the pipeline."

The 34-year-old said the union, which has more than 900 members, felt snubbed that it was not asked to put forward a representative to sit on the interim executive board set up in the wake of the Hopkins report.

Education Minister Randy Horton said on Friday that members of both the BUT and the Association of School Principals would be asked to join a new permanent board of education.

Ms Douglas said: "We want to be a part of the process so that we can have buy-in from our membership. We all want success.

"After the election, come December 18, no matter what happens we still have an interim board in place. We still have a review that's out there. The recommendations were so vague we are still in a tailspin."

Ms Douglas said the union longed for better communication from the Ministry.

"That's what's ironic to us. The report said that the Ministry was not communicating but now we are still working in the same way. I don't think Hopkins would be happy."

She said teachers had picked themselves up from the criticism in the review and had voluntarily upped their game in the classroom.

A long-running dispute over pay was settled earlier this year and teachers are happy with the result.

But Ms Douglas said they were still angry that schools no longer had assigned substitutes to cover staff absences.

"Basically it contravenes our agreement," she said.

Both parties say in their election manifestos that they would review schools each year and publish the results. Ms Douglas said she was not sure that would work. "The community is too small," she said. "That would bring back elitism and I don't think our structure could hold that. I don't think it would bode well for our membership because you could be an excellent teacher at a school not doing well."

Her own daughter, Zya, six, is in a public primary school so Ms Douglas shares the concerns of all parents about ensuring her child gets the best possible education.

She said the number one issue that any new government should be working on in education is upgrading the curriculum, followed by professional development for staff.

She added: "A person wakes up wanting to be their best, wanting to do our best for the clients, who are the students."