The much-maligned Bermuda School Certificate could be scrapped and replaced with an internationally recognised qualification, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Henry Johnson, the Government's new $250,000-a-year education consultant, told this newspaper he believed the BSC may not be rigorous enough and said high level discussions were already taking place about whether to keep it for public senior school students.

Critics of the four-year BSC programme taught at CedarBridge Academy and the Berkeley Institute claim it is not of a high enough standard and fails to measure up to similar graduation certificates elsewhere in the world.

Dr. Johnson, who came to the Island two months ago from the US, said: "I'm still trying to develop my position on it. There is genuine concern among education circles that the level of rigour is inconsistent from school to school and not sufficiently high and my sense is that's an accurate reflection of reality."

He agreed it was deeply worrying that youngsters graduating from the public school system could be getting a qualification which was not comparable with their counterparts elsewhere in the world.

"That does not mean to imply there aren't wonderful teachers doing wonderful things and wonderful principals doing excellent things," he added. "But I mean the broader picture. The overwhelming majority of students need to be challenged at a rigorous level and should be successful in a curriculum that's rigorous and challenging. We have got a long way to go."

A damning study published earlier this year by UK professor David Hopkins and a team of education experts called for a massive overhaul of public schools. The report said the BSC did not compare favourably with the qualifications available at the Island's private schools, including the International Baccalaureate (IB).

It described the BSC as having "the advantage of being an attainable qualification that denotes a broad and balanced education and a demonstrable though fairly low level of achievement".

Dr. Johnson said those working on educational reform — including an interim executive board — were considering adopting the IB in the two senior schools, as well as looking at other alternatives.

The Berkeley Institute's fundraising body has already mooted plans for a fee-paying IB centre but that could exclude students whose parents were unable to afford private education.

Dr. Johnson said: "My sense is that if it's fee-based it begins to get outside the realm of public schools but the Berkeley has its separate board and they have a degree of autonomy. One of the things we want to do is get as much alignment among schools as we can."

He added that he hadn't yet decided what to recommend to the interim board regarding the BSC but had suggested having an external evaluation of the course.