Government approached auditors of the education system six times to make changes to their report and were turned down every time, it was claimed in the Senate yesterday.

Opposition Senate Leader Milton Scott claimed that on six occasions the auditors were approached by the Department of Education which wanted them to change their findings.

"But they wouldn't change it, they stood by their findings,'' he said.

Sen. Scott made the allegation during a Senate debate on the audit, which was commissioned by Education Minister Jerome Dill to investigate the efficncy of the Department and the public school system.

Government Senate Leader Gary Pitman said the audit of the Government school system was a result of the Education Ministry's desire to investigate a number of concerns including efficiency and public perception.

"I commend the Minister for commissioning the audit, tabling the audit and sharing the contents with the public,'' he said.

Sen. Pitman claimed there were some 32 inaccuracies in the report, including an incorrect chart and claims parents were not privy to information about the restructuring plan.

But Sen. Scott , who is also union organiser of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, claimed Government was more preoccupied with a few inaccuracies rather than the issues at hand.

"Government spent more time focusing on the 30 some-odd inaccuracies in this rather than focusing on the issues and problems.'' Independent Sen. Alf Oughton asked why an education audit was not carried out when the Ministry was planning the restructuring.

"A lot of time and effort is going into the restructuring,'' Sen. Oughton said. "If the minister in charge in the early days had done this, the recommendations in this report could have been done in tandem with restructuring.'' And Sen. Oughton questioned why local teachers had to use their own money to supplement their classrooms.

"This shouldn't have to happen,'' he said. "And how much do they spend on this.'' But Sen. Lawrence Scott (UBP) claimed Government had not done a "bad job'' at running the educational system while admitting it could have done better.

"We have had control of the system for a good while,'' Sen. Scott said. "And I think we haven't done a bad job, but we could have done better.

"We don't need to beat up on ourselves. We need to move forward... We know what needs to be done, now we just have to go about doing it and we have some fine people in the Ministry to do it.'' Sen. Walwyn Hughes (Ind) reminded his colleagues to maintain their perspective on the report since the auditors only spent six days on the Island.

And he pointed out that the report did not state how the students were doing -- good or bad.

He also said he was "shocked'' to see the data on the number of students repeating grades and the students being suspended.

"It's a chilling picture,'' Sen. Hughes said. "There is some pretty violent stuff in some schools.'' Sen. Noela Haycock (UBP) suggested that the high number of students repeating a year could be due to lack of student initiative and teachers spending too much time having to discipline students rather than teach them.

"I wonder how many students come to school hungry, not prepared and not ready to learn,'' she said. "And how many teachers spent their class disciplining students.'' Sen. Neletha Butterfield (PLP) urged the Government to take immediate action on the recommendations in the report to address issues like poor morale, lack of a public relations officer and disparity between Government Preschools.

"There is unevenness between them, especially St. John's Preschool,'' she said. "We need to look into the preschools... We may need an audit to be conducted to find out how much money is spent on rent... on the safety and security of the schools.'' And she suggested that Westgate inmates may have to be imported to help repair the safety hazards uncovered by the report.

"The auditors uncovered a lot of safety issues in the schools,'' she explained. "We may have to call on Westgate to contribute and help repair.'' Calling the audit and "indictment'' of the school system, Sen. Butterfield said a report card was needed on the Education Ministry.

"May be we have to have yearly audits.'' But Community Affairs Minister Yvette Swan pointed out that audits were meant to be critical, not to give praise.

"Audits don't give commendations,'' Sen. Swan said. "This report is to tell us what's wrong, not how good we are.'' And she reminded Senators that no matter what educational policies were in place, it was up to students and their parents to seize opportunities.

"I remind people that having the best equipment, facilities and administrators won't mean much unless if the child is not willing to take advantage of them and the parents are not behind them.''