Teachers and parents turned out for a town hall examining education reform last night.

Dozens attended the Progressive Labour Party-led meeting at Elliot Primary School, which was moderated by Constituency 10 candidate Ernest Peets, who was joined by MPs Diallo Rabain and Rolfe Commissiong, and Senator Tinee Furbert.

Discussing what he described as the party’s “good blueprint for moving forward”, shadow education minister Rabain said the ultimate goal was about providing students and educators alike with the tools they needed to move forward.

“I’m not advocating the throwing of money at schools just because we think they need money,” he said.

“We need a concentrated and fiscally responsible effort to ensure that our schools are up to par, and suitable for the type of learning that we need to see.”

Mr Commissiong said that he and his fellow party members were there “to make a compelling case for change”.

Workforce development and education, he said, must be “joined at the hip”, and the school system must shift to reflect the role technology is having in the workplace and real-world economy.

Ms Furbert asked the crowd if members believed all children had the capacity to learn and discussed how the differing needs of students dictated the need for different educational offerings. People touched on areas including the proposed phasing out of the middle school system and changes to the curriculum in

recent years in their questions and comments to the speakers.

One man asked how the Government would address violence through the school system.

In response, Mr Rabain pointed to the party’s proposal to reduce geographical restrictions on what school a child can attend.

“We feel that allowing that will help to ease some of the antisocial behaviour that we’re finding of the gang mentality in the schools,” he said.

Mr Commissiong said the violence was the “poisonous fruit of income inequality”.

“The teachers have become not just teachers but mothers (and) social workers,” he said.

Ms Furbert said that the community had a role to play.

“We have to learn how to co-operate and work together,” she said.

Earlier, the PLP said that the Government was more interested in finger pointing and dodging responsibility than addressing the issues affecting Bermuda’s education system.

It followed a statement from education minister Cole Simons on Tuesday, accusing the PLP of failing students for 14 years.

However, the PLP said “significant advances” were made during the party’s time in office, including commissioning the Hopkins report, of which eight of ten recommendations were implemented, reducing class sizes, and implementing the Cambridge Curriculum.

Mr Simons’s statement reinforced the party’s stance that politics must be removed from education, the PLP said.

“Backbiting, petty squabbling and name calling may impress some, but most Bermudians want solutions and not excuses.”