Overseas consultants have called on the Education Department to open the lines of communication between itself and the public and to consolidate its offices.

These were two of the major recommendations made in an unprecedented audit of Bermuda's public school system.

The Royal Gazette understands that auditors through the report, which has not yet been released to the public, also urged the department to restructure for "cost efficiency'' and implement a curriculum management system which will make education expectations of students clear.

The $45,000 report, prepared by a team led by associate professor of educational administration at Iowa State University William Poston, was completed last year and has been in the hands of the Ministry since March.

Education Minister Jerome Dill, who in January speculated that Government would release the report within days of receiving it, recently promised that he would make its contents public after his Cabinet colleagues had seen it and before the end of the school term.

But suspicions and rumours about the delay in releasing the report have been circulating.

And one parent, through an anonymous letter, claimed that the 200-page document detailed "the serious deficiencies in our public school system''.

"Such reports are supposed to be released immediately,'' the writer stated, "but the Minister of Education has been sitting on the final report for more than one month.

"The substantive conclusion of the auditors is that our public school system has yet to establish coordinated, systematic plans and goals. Policies are inadequate to assure quality control. High morale and job satisfaction in the system are mixed at best.

"The written curriculum is not of sufficient quality to provide sound direction to teachers in the system...'' The writer also claimed that the Education Ministry was seen to be "unresponsive to its client public''.

Both Mr. Dill and Education Permanent Secretary Marion Robinson were off the Island yesterday and unavailable for comment.

And acting Permanent Secretary Harrichand Sukdeo said he could not comment on the report until it was released.

But Mr. Poston, while declining to comment on the anonymous letter, confirmed to The Royal Gazette that the department was lacking in several areas.

"I think Bermuda is delivering a good education system, but it is not as congruent as it needs to be for all of its clients,'' he said.

Noting that the auditors' recommendations were listed in order of importance, Mr. Poston stressed that the first was to put a comprehensive public and staff participatory process in place.

Consultants want more communication "We recommended a comprehensive public and staff process for participation because we found that the major stakeholders did not have much input,'' said the man who has audited school systems with student populations ranging from 400 to 200,000.

"For example,'' he added, "the Board of Education told us they felt their role was confusing. They really did not feel like they were making substantive contributions. They felt that their input was not being valued.

"This is an advisory function. These are community active and visible people who can bring something to the education system.'' The auditing team provided the department with a "specific'' two-way communication model based on the UK system.

"A picture of it, which has been included in the report, has Government and the Minister representing the community, then the Ministry itself,'' Mr.

Poston explained. "What we're suggesting is that you need, from the business community, civic groups, parents, principals, teachers and all dealing with students, to identify what is in the best interest of the students and then recommend it to the Minister and ultimately the Government so that policies from Government can be more clearly defined.'' Turning to the auditors' second recommendation -- the consolidation of Education offices, Mr. Poston said: "The Ministry is fragmented so a parent almost needs to get a taxi if they want to visit different offices.'' He admitted that such a recommendation "might eliminate some support staff''.

But, he said, it did not mean that the people holding those positions would necessarily be displaced.

"They could be assigned to other areas,'' he added.

Restructuring of staff was the audit team's third recommendation.

And while Mr. Poston pointed out that the Education Department's organisational structure was adequate, he said: "We found that there was some awkwardness and redundancies. There were areas were they could have used staff more adequately. We looked at every position in the central office.

"We find that staffing -- 182 pupils for every central office administrator -- is less than that of the US. So it is not really out of line.

"But the problem was that many of the functions housed in the central office could have been housed in schools.'' Auditors also found that the flow of command in the department was not clear.

For example, Mr. Poston noted, one administrator had 41 people to supervise.

"There was no way that person could help people effectively,'' he said, adding that some senior education officers also had an array of responsibilities.

Mr. Poston's team also suggested that special education officers and mentor teachers should be moved out of the department's central office and placed in schools where they could be more effective.

And they suggested that the mentor programme for teachers be replaced by a staff development programme.

"We found that the mentor programme (were teachers are responsible for supervising and coaching new teachers) was well intended,'' Mr. Poston said, "but the benefit was not very clear.'' The Department's curriculum direction was also not clear cut.

Mr. Poston said: "Regarding curriculum, we are saying that the curriculum direction is inadequately defined. So the education expectations of children are not clear.'' He noted that the fourth "major'' recommendation was to design and implement a comprehensive curriculum system.

However, Mr. Poston said the report was not all doom and gloom.

"We felt that things like the elimination of the 11-Plus exam, the creation of middle schools, and the consolidation of academic and general high schools was promising,'' he pointed out. "One of the advantages of such plans is that the unevenness of the system should be reduced. And the extension of the school system by a year is always a positive.'' Mr. Poston also noted that CedarBridge Academy -- the Island's first senior secondary school to open in September -- "will give an outstanding breadth and depth to the curriculum, especially in the area of technology''.

"It will also unify students from different backgrounds,'' he added.

"I think the Minister's (Gerald Simons) leadership in this was top notch, probably a bit risky politically, but I believe time will prove him right.

But Mr. Poston said the audit team found that support for CedarBridge was mixed.

"There were parent concerns about the size of the school... And we found that people were not as informed about the reforms as they thought they were,'' he said. "So there needs to be more joint communication.'' Stressing that the auditors' proposals were just advice, Mr. Poston added: "Our recommendations are based on some very carefully gathered information.

In a sense we're telling Bermuda what Bermuda was telling us.''