Education Minister warns teachers
Minister of Education El James has warned that the quality of teaching in Bermuda's public schools must be raised at the same time as implementing the new Cambridge International Curriculum in September 2010.
"We should not seek to use old strategies with new content, any more than we should seek to put new wine in old wine skins. In both cases, the end result could be disastrous," he warned in a Ministerial Statement yesterday, which was delivered on his behalf by Minister of Works & Engineering Derrick Burgess.
He added that "difficult decisions must be made in those cases where teachers, principals and administrators are not meeting the required standard".
The Cambridge system will be used as the basis for English, mathematics and science in primary, middle and senior schools. The decision to implement it was made as part of a wide-ranging review of Bermuda's failing public school system.
Selected ahead of around 15 other education systems, the curriculum was chosen for its international recognition, its assessment tools and its consistency in moving from one level to the other, according to an announcement made in May by Mr. James. "We want to give our children a diploma that is internationally recognised, one that has that Cambridge logo in the corner and you can take anywhere in the world," he said at the time. "For far too long, we have heard complaints about the ill-preparedness of some of our graduates for higher education or for the workforce."
The new curriculum will be introduced to all S1 classes in September 2010 but students in S2 through to S4 will finish their educations by attaining the existing Bermuda School certificate. Mr. James said yesterday that although the curriculum will not be implemented in schools until next year, preparation is already being done in terms of teacher training, the review of resource materials and the development of new timetables.
In July this year, a team of local educators will travel to Cambridge in the United Kingdom for training on the curriculum before passing on their new skills to others in Bermuda.
Responding to the statement, Mike Charles, General Secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, backed the decision to wait until next year.
"We don't want to rush into it. I suppose everybody would like to see it happen quickly but we should not try to do everything for this September," he said.–Mr. Charles added in response to the Minister's comments that "difficult decisions" may have to be made if staff are not up to standard: "The BUT have always sought to keep our teachers on the cutting edge."