An educator who ran a five-week summer camp in information and communications technology has said he is concerned by inadequate standards in the public school system.

ICT educator Darren Burchall was invited by acting commissioner of higher education Dr Lew Simmons to work with the public school system on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning.

During his visit, Mr Burchall noticed a “vast” disparity between the levels of education in the public and private middle schools.

The private schools, he found, benefited from well-stocked ICT resources such as reliable wi-fi and smart screens while the public schools were lagging with slow internet connections and smart boards being used as “glorified projector screens”.

He believes that the ICT infrastructure must be improved and has submitted a proposal to the Education Ministry.

It suggests integrating STEM education into the curriculum, better collaboration between the private and public schools, the establishment of a National Training Institute for embedding new technologies, and overhauling one middle school into a “digital 21st century learning hub”.

Mr Burchall is also preparing a proposal for Education Minister Wayne Scott to create a working group that will invite key people in public and private schools to make and share strategies. He currently lives and works in Sao Paulo, Brazil as head of ICT for teaching, learning and assessing at St Nicolas School where he is responsible for the ICT curriculum and strategy.

He previously taught ICT in England and recently launched the company Great4Learning, which promotes and facilitates ICT and STEM learning.

He told The Royal Gazette: “There is a vast difference between the private and public schoolchildren. I taught a group from the gifted and talented children of the public schools and I think we have some questions to answer to as educators.

“We did a robotics camp where the children used a platform to create a computer game. The public schoolchildren had a lot of problems and having spoken to some teachers they said, ‘our children just don’t do this type of thing’.

“It is not their fault — I think it is due to the curriculum they are being given and the teachers don’t have the freedom to embed the technology. I have teachers who tell me they have interactive boards in their classrooms but haven’t been trained to use them.

“Programming and coding is the literacy of the 21st century — we are almost 20 years into this and Bermuda hasn’t even started yet.”

Mr Burchall said that one public school he visited had no internet connection and another banned the use of cellphones on campus.

“These phones are actually computers that can save the ministry money on budget. I speak to head teachers and ask how many laptops they have in their school and they open their eyes and realise they are banning technology that children could use every day.

“There needs to be some collaboration because the private schools are flying so high — there must be a way we can tap into and share knowledge, share procedures and share processes.

“It is much easier and cheaper than we think. They can start small by using Google Apps, Google Docs, the Google spreadsheet programme Sheet, and Google Classroom, which has taken the world by storm. It is fantastic and this stuff is free.”

A ministry spokesperson did not address specific questions we sent with regards to Mr Burchall’s findings and proposal but did offer the following statement: “The Ministry of Education is committed to integrating STEM education in our public school.

“It is the vision for the Department to integrate all subjects to have a STEM component. The Department is putting more focus on teaching and professional development that teaches how to do inquiry/problem-solving through interdisciplinary teaching with critical thinking and project based learning. As such we are implementing a Mathematics Literary Strategy in the fall. In addition, we have the NASA Globe initiative in primary schools as well as the America’s Cup programme for M1 and M2 students instructing them on STEM education through their outreach programmes.”