A committee is still considering whether to replace or redesign the Bermuda School Certificate, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.

A spokesman told The Royal Gazette that a working group set up last year to look at the BSC — the qualification taken by public school students in order to graduate — had not yet made a final recommendation.

"The Ministry of Education can inform the public that a curriculum committee has been considering what revisions, if any, should be made to the senior school exit document," he said. "The committee held discussions during the later part of last school year and early summer. Items discussed included the GCSE, BSC and International Baccalaureate.

"No final recommendation has come forward pending results of a curriculum audit that was initiated at the end of last year and will be finalised at the end of this semester."

Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons called on Wednesday for the "substandard" BSC to be replaced or redesigned urgently, claiming that public students were being shortchanged.

Any further delay in making a decision on the BSC would, Dr. Gibbons said, be "grossly unfair to students and in the end will result in yet more non-Bermudians having to be imported for jobs that should be filled by young Bermudians".

The BSC has been the subject of concern for years, with the education experts who compiled the Hopkins report in 2007 comparing it unfavourably to the qualifications on offer at the Island's private schools.

The report declared it was "an attainable qualification that denotes a broad and balanced education and a demonstrable though fairly low level of achievement".

Labour and Immigration Minister David Burch said earlier this week he was aware of the "challenges with the standard of education in Bermuda" in a speech about the lack of decent first jobs available to young Bermudians.

The curriculum committee considering whether to replace the BSC was appointed as part of the ongoing education reform being implemented following recommendations in the Hopkins report.