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Nine months ago, David Hopkins and a team of Bermudians completed the Hopkins Report on Public Education in Bermuda. Now, a consultant and another team of Bermudians are telling us what they will do to fix Bermuda's Public Education system.

Here is what I see. Bermuda's public education system once provided a higher quality of education than it was found, by Dr. Hopkins, to now be providing. The overall quality of education delivered by Bermuda's public education system eroded, first slowly, then more rapidly until reaching the abysmal low that Dr. Hopkins found and reported in May 2007.

In the period 2000-2007, three critical things happened. First, Berkeley Institute stopped offering the GCSE programme in the same way the Saltus, Warwick Academy and Bermuda High School offered the programme [Cedarbridge never offered it].

Second, the overall decline in the number of students attending in the public education system actually declined, but this actual decline was matched by an actual INCREASE in the number of teachers, administrators, managers, and others who were employed in the public system.

Third, the teachers, administrators and managers collaborated in a massive game play that was intended to, and that succeeded in, deceiving the taxpaying public.*

The first part of the game plan was to stop reporting general school results. The second part was to misrepresent graduation figures. The third part was to change test formats and evaluation procedures, stop some test and evaluation procedures, and then report and then not report on new test formats and evaluation procedures. The only reason that I can find for this peculiar behaviour by a large group of persons who seek to be paid as 'professionals' is professional - and very public - dishonesty. The sole aim of all their shenanigans was to hoodwink the public.

So now, nine months later, after Dr. Hopkins showed us the reality, we get the promises. Each promise, taken by itself is a good promise. Taken all together, the whole package of promises is a good package. So I've no problem with the promises. No problem at all.

I do have a problem with who is making those promises. That's where I see difficulty. You, as an intelligent reader, probably see the same thing.

The people who are now making the promises are the same people who, over the past seven years (actually longer than that but the problem became more sharply focused in those seven years) stopped reporting things; manipulated data; used tests and then stopped using tests; gave out one set of graduation figures then turned around and gave out another; gave facts and then purported to not have similar facts available; defied attempts to have general public disclosure; and other little administrative tricks.

So what I see is that the people who did all of that, are now the same people who are now making a new promise. The situation, as I see it - and perhaps you'll agree with me - is similar to this.

Sitting across the street from your house is a person with a big black bag. You recognize that person and you know that he is a man who has had many convictions and incarcerations for burglary. You go across and speak to him. He promises you that he has changed his ways and he promises that will no longer burglarize homes. He assures you that your home is safe.

Having heard his promise, you believe him completely and you go off to work happy that your home and your possessions will be safe. Completely safe. Right? That's how you'd feel. You wouldn't even have a teeny-weeny doubt in your mind. Right?

The administrators and managers at the Ministry of Education have made new promises. These latest promises are part of a string of promises that have been made by the same human gang who have the same human and professional values that have been shown over the past decade. This human gang operates under the same rules and regulations as in the past. It's the same gang, same values, same basic structure, but all dressed up - as I'd earlier predicted - in the new style of polysyllabic words and long strung together phrases.

Given the same gang, new words phenomenon, I believe that Bermuda's public education system will get massaged and manipulated in exactly the same way that the education professionals used to regularly massage and manipulate the data about the final output of Bermuda's public education system.

"What Bermuda's public education system requires is the setting of a clear standard and then rigorous pursuit of that standard. Want an example of how that can succeed? Just look at MSA. Open entry. Large classes. High, not low, ratio of teachers:students. School fees lower than the cost to educate in the public system. Regularly graduates more than 70 per cent of those kindergarten entry intakes who reside in Bermuda for the full twelve-year MSA programme. Bermuda Institute does much the same."

I reckon that this new effort by the Ministry of Education will be full of what's already been delivered. More words. More promises. More ideas. But not better results. The whole combination is showing all the symptoms and signs of trying to fix the problem without tackling the underlying issue that the same gang will have the same core values.

In all, what I see is that over this education matter, this government, having a wide-open choice between a "Barack solution, a Hillary solution, or a McCain solution", is showing that it is choosing McCain!

*Commented on in many other columns: [Partial list] 21 Feb. 07, 09 May 07, 13 July 07, 21 Aug. 07, 24 Oct. 07, 09 Nov. 07. There were nine on education in 2006.[[In-content Ad]]

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