The principal of Bermuda's largest secondary school has hit back at critics of public education and urged parents to have faith in the system and their children.

Kalmar Richards, head teacher of CedarBridge Academy, said students taught at Government schools could reach the highest standards, provided they had the support and backing from their family, as well as teachers.

She spoke out following comments made by former vice president of Bermuda College Donald Peters, who left his post and the Island on Sunday, that education should be taken out of the hands of Government.

Dr. Peters claimed many 16-year-olds were leaving school with the ability of 13-year-olds and said 70 percent of students who applied to do courses at the college failed to meet the criteria.

He accused Government of failing children and said standards needed to be raised to put a halt to the number of students transferring from public to private education.

But Mrs. Richards, who has worked at CedarBridge since it opened in 1997 and has been head teacher for a year, agreed that the secret to success was placing high expectations on pupils, but said parental involvement played a major role.

And although she admitted standards needed to be raised across the Island and more direction given to both pupils and teachers, she said there was no reason why any student should fail within public education.

"I am thoroughly committed to public education,'' she said.

"I'm a product of public education and my two children are in public education.

"But the role that parents play is critical. Parents should set standards for their children and expect them to perform at a high level. They should monitor what their children are doing in school and, if issues arise, they should deal with them.'' However, Mrs. Richards said she did accept there were problems in the Government system, but said she and her staff were working to raise standards and address problems regarding literacy and numeracy ability.

She said school inspections did occur but added that she would welcome something more formal, provided principals and teachers were told what targets they and students were supposed to meet.

"In education, standards and targets are needed,'' she said.

"The Ministry is currently looking at that, but there is a great need to make it clear exactly what is expected. There is a need for direction.'' She also said the key was for teachers to constantly develop their skills and improve their teaching methods. Where teachers needed further training, it should be automatically offered.

In an attempt to improve learning at CedarBridge, she said she and her deputies regularly sat in on lessons to monitor teachers and then wrote reports on how well they performed.

"I will not accept anything less than first class, top notch teachers, but equally I won't accept anything less from my pupils,'' she added. "Parents and pupils must have the attitude that school is for learning and students must give 100 percent -- their brains should be stretched.

"We don't want mediocrity here. Everyone must excel and our students are beginning to make progress. We have many excellent students.'' She said there were 990 pupils at the school, but just less than 600 of those were represented at the last parents' open evening.

That figure, she said, while good, was not good enough.

Mrs. Richards said every parent should be clambering to find out how their child was doing and offer praise, as well as constructive criticism, when required.

And she said a large percentage of pupils arrived at her school with very low self esteem, believing they could not succeed.

"We believe here that every child has a talent and we must find it and develop it,'' added the principal.

Kalmar Richards