the first of two parts, former Premier Sir John Swan gives a prescription for improving public schools.

In recent months there has been genuine concern expressed about our public education system. The system is undergoing intense public scrutiny. Healthy debate is essential if we are to advance the future of Bermudian Education. I respect any parent, teacher or concerned citizen who cares enough about education to voice their opinion. Too often, however, people are choosing sides rather than choosing solutions. We need to step back, lower our voices, and truly listen to each other in our search for solutions. Education is a Bermudian problem and it requires a Bermudian, not a partisan response.

I bring no special knowledge or expertise to this subject but I enter this debate as a parent and a concerned citizen who cares very deeply about our children and the future of Bermuda. The ability of our children to grow up to be good citizens and to go on to college depends on some new thinking about public education. We cannot build Bermuda's future without a sound system of quality education. Let us make the education of all our children this country's first priority.

In our continued dialogue about public education, we need to pause to acknowledge that the overwhelming majority of Bermudian professionals, politicians and leaders of our various institutions went through the Bermudian public education system. We should not lose track of our accomplishments. This reinforces my view that given the right learning environment, every child can be educated. Many of my contemporaries came from tough circumstances. They did not have books at home, had parents who could barely read and write, did not have parents or siblings who went to college, many were from homes with single parents -- in spite of these handicaps we got a good education thanks to good teachers. I do not stop being amazed and I am filled with pride that many of my schoolmates from Central School (now Victor Scott) who, unfortunately, had to leave school at the tender age of 13, have made a good life for themselves.

Many of them are excellent craftsmen and fine citizens. We know, therefore, good teachers can make the difference.

What proved to work in our schools were established replicable programmes that embodied high standards of conduct and achievement. In fact, today some schools in the public system have teachers who are doing incredible work with children. These teachers deserve credit for their magnificent achievements.

Nevertheless, our public education system has not caught up with the pace of change. The need to change the face of public education is arguably the most momentous issue in education today. The pace of change has created a demand for more and more skilled workers while the jobs for semi-skilled and unskilled workers have drastically diminished in our economy.

Jobs in the non-skill areas in the hotels and retail stores continue to decline while the 1998 Employment Survey reveals large increases in employment in the business services and international companies which require highly skilled workers.

The momentum and direction of change in the development of new technologies are in the infancy stage. Two things are happening simultaneously. First, the information revolution is changing everything, but we are still in the early stages of this revolution. I have had the privilege of talking to people in Silicon Valley and they told me that we are in the first inning of a nine-innings ball game. We have not seen anything compared to what is coming, to the dramatic changes that are coming in the years ahead.

The second revolution is biological technology that is close on the heels of the information revolution. When you combine the impact of these two revolutions, you begin to appreciate just how much this world will change during our lifetime and the lifetime of our children.

We have to, therefore, do nothing less than revolutionise education and make the education of our children our most important national priority. Nothing could be more important, and at no time in our history has the need been greater for that strength and commitment for the improvement and preservation of our most vital institutions, our schools.

We need to preserve the best of our education system while reinventing the rest. It is not easy to transform the system but the pace of change in our society leaves us with little option but to embrace change and make change our friend. Here are five suggestions we need to do to embrace change: 1. Accept the fact that change is required. Denial, refusal to face reality, is an ever-present danger. People can shift into a defensive mode, blaming outsiders or forces beyond their control, for each thing that went wrong. That is totally unproductive. Change is needed. Recognise it. Accept it. Deal with it.

2. Make a commitment. The biggest error is failure to establish a commitment to change, backed by a sense of urgency. Even with agreement to take action, it is hard to implement major change because it is hard to get people out of their comfort zones. You must recognise that complacency is the enemy, and create a sense of urgency about the need to change.

3. Focus on the future. The process of change does not work if you look at the situation through a rear view mirror. To move the education system forward and deal with real issues, don't rationalise the past or try to fix it. Look ahead. See where the world is going. Plan for the future.

4. Have a clarity purpose. Too much emphasis is placed on crafting a mission statement and not enough on underlying imperative -- to develop a clear and sensible vision of where our educational system is headed. Internet start-up companies are told they must have an "elevator speech'' where they go in search of venture capital; if they cannot explain the ideas behind their company in two minutes, in clear and compelling terms, they are doomed.

5. Change will be painful to some people. It will disrupt the status quo. You must decide not what is wanted but what is needed.

There are national pressures for transformational change of our public education system. First society is changing; doors of opportunity are opening for people in places where doors were closed and where doors did not even exist. So parents are demanding change; they want our education system to prepare their children so that they can take advantage of these opportunities.

We want, at this time, to spend some time discussing some observations and explaining some ideas that might be considered provocative, but are designed to provide healthy debate.

All of our children deserve to get a first rate education as a matter of right. I know, in my gut, because of who I am and where I have come from, that given the right learning environment, every child can be educated. In fact, today we know what works -- good parenting, good teaching, good discipline, high academic standards, and meticulous attention to children's work through proven programs. We want our children to succeed. We want public education to work and it can.

We should not, therefore, seek to excuse, to defend or perpetuate failing schools to which we would not send our own children -- John Dewey a brilliant educator said: "What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children.'' Accountability Fundamental shifts in the expectations of the public have demanded that the business of public education become open and transparent. We have to pointedly and very publicly tell the truth about our successes and failures, about lack of standards, about problems in teacher preparation and quality, the bad news about student achievement, both in domestic terms and international comparisons.

We must set goals and objectives and make schools accountable for reaching these goals and objectives. We have learned something that business people have always known: when we commit to measurement and public reporting, we focus the system to pay attention to performance. In a real sense, measurement is driven by change and provides the framework for change. The administrators of our schools should set benchmarks, evaluate outcomes and report publicly on individual school performance.

Strong academic programmes -- history, mathematics, science and technology are an essential requirement for preparing young people to make the successful transition from school to work or college.

Private vs. Public Education No parent or student should have to feel that they have to leave a public school to go to a private school in order to get an orderly environment, competent teachers, high academic standards and a challenging curriculum.

There is nothing inherent in "private'' that products these things. These are things that some of our public schools already do -- and all of them must do.

Parents taking their children out of public schools and sending them to private schools, together with a number of home schools that have been set up is a clear example of dissatisfied parents voting with their feet. But we can't tell ourselves that it's hopeless because the public schools cater to 65 percent of our school population of whom over 90 percent are black. Too many of these children, especially black males, are falling through the cracks. And too many people continue to embrace a culture of victimisation and entitlement based on past injustice instead of pushing for equality of opportunity, standards and accountability. These are the scars we carry. These are the scars that continue to hold us back.

Early Childhood Education Most educators agree that pre-school education is of paramount importance, therefore, there should be no shortage of places in Government pre-schools.

To underline the importance of early childhood education, I like to tell the following story: Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin in the mid-19th Century, had a mother once ask the clergyman when should she begin the education of her child, which she told him was four years old. "Madam'', was the reply, "you have lost three years already -- from the very first smile that gleams over an infant's cheek, your opportunity begins''. Of course, Whately was correct. Babies begin learning almost as soon as they enter the world. But that cuts both ways. Just as a young child has the opportunity to begin learning and developing, the child whose early potential is ignored falls behind.

There is no greater missed chance in the life of a child than when the child fails to get off on the right foot in the very beginning. When we allow children to fall behind their peers, they struggle at every grade level with tasks their classmates already have mastered. They become more frustrated and alienated with each passing year. Finally, when they become adults we blame them for not being more productive members of society, or worse, for being destructive members of society.

It takes a great deal of faith to invest large amounts of money, time and effort in an idea that cannot be proven right or wrong in the short term. The past Government and indeed the present Government have shown this faith. Why not accept children at Government's pre-schools at 3 years old rather than at 4 years old.

Boarding Schools For "At Risk'' Children It might take a radical decision to rescue "at risk'' children from unfit parents by setting up a boarding academy staffed with first class teachers, catering to students 8 to 14 years of age, because that is the age when youngsters start to crystalise their values. Some might say it is a compelling idea but there are problems with it. What parent would want to give up the care of their child? No matter how much a parent loves a child, I think some parents realise that they are not doing what they need to be doing for their children. Because they are single parents and working various jobs or both parents are hooked on drugs or they are involved in unstable or unhealthy relationships. I think many parents in these circumstances might be relieved if the stake took them so that they could be involved in character building and an academic educational programme.

Obviously a big concern in setting up this academy will be money. Benjamin Franklin said it best: "The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.'' Lack of education often leads to missed opportunities, human hardships and sometimes the overall lack of ability to cope with life pressures. This in turn sometimes leads to a life of crime.

We need to put the expense that would be laid out for a boarding academy into perspective. According to a recent editorial in the Mid-Ocean News of 7 July 2000: "The taxpayers of this country are paying $14,333 per annum per student -- or $5,000 more than the highest fees charged by private schools in Bermuda.

Moreover, we spend over $40,000 to keep one prisoner per annum, the prisons are full and the majority of prisoners are functionally illiterate.'' It makes sense spending money on the front end to educate these young men rather than the back end to imprison them. We contend that if the overall education standards of our children were raised there would be a corresponding drop in our prison population.

In recent weeks the public education system has received the message loud and clear that it must do better. Dr. Peters estimates that 70 percent of public school graduates are functionally illiterate, innumerate or wanting in other rudimentary academic skills. Dr. Peters suggested that because of the lack of accountability the Ministry should be abolished. At the very least we should demand higher quality, greater efficiency, greater accountability, more openness and transparency.

Privatisation Like public schools in Bermuda, many public schools in the USA and Britain are islands of incompetence in a sea of indifference with dismal scholastic records. Like the USA, the depth of the problem in Bermuda requires a radical solution. The Edison School's model in the USA -- where the management of failing schools is handed over to a private education management company.

Edison schools, founded in 1992 as the Edison Project, are the USA's leading private manager of public schools. Edison has now implemented its school design in 79 public schools, which it operates under management contacts with local school districts. more than 38,000 students currently attend Edison partnership schools, the number is expected to increase by 50 percent over the next year.

Despite serving a disadvantaged population, the latest figures show that on standardised tests, 84 percent of classes have made significant gains, over and above what would be expected of the pupil.

The British Government has sent high level envoys to the USA to learn from Edison. Can something such as Edison Schools work here where the vast majority of students in public schools are black and where public schools are essentially the only option available to them? One thing that all of the commentators agreed on is that nothing less than a revolutionary change will be necessary to break the cycle of disadvantage, which leaves so many adults, black males in particular, without the basic skills to compete in the new technological age with new realities and new expectations.

Too many students that graduate from the public systems are economically and civically ill-prepared. We were shocked into reality when Dr. Peters reported that 70 percent of the high school graduates couldn't confidently read, write or accurately compute. We need a national strategy for the reforms of our public schools to provide for every student a solid vocational, civic and moral education. The goal must be quality for all.

Concluded in tomorrow's Royal Gazette