---

That huge full-page advert uncovered a huge lie. An accounting lie as big as the lies eventually uncovered in the Enron accounting scandal.

That full page showed conclusively that Terry Lister, Minister for Education, has a cross on his back and an anchor and chain around his neck. The cross is fashioned out of the deliberate obfuscations by the teaching professionals in Bermuda.

The cross’s central spine is created from the fact that in 2000, Bermuda’s teaching professionals Terra Nova tested ALL the students in their care. Then, in 2001, 2002, 2003 they decided not to test a proportion of the students in their care. By eliminating lower performing students from the test, they apparently improved test scores. Eventually, this removing process saw them ‘remove’ as much as 24 per cent [that’s one out of every four] of the students in their care, and NOT submit them to the Terra Nova Test.

That was dishonest. The test results were unreal. In 2005, most students were again submitted to the Terra Nova Test, and the scores reflected reality. The first part of that full page ad explained that in words. The first chart showed it graphically.

I have often commented that our public system under-educates. That full-page ad showed that my criticism was absolutely correct. Even more, the other charts showed that the public system actually de-educates.

A student group, the same student group, who test at one level in P5, are shown to be testing at a lower level five years later, when they reach S1. This kind of result is consistent for all students progressing (?) from Primary to Senior levels. That’s not educating. That’s not learning. That’s de-educating. That’s de-learning. Again, it’s all shown graphically.

Bermudian students — staying and living in their own Bermuda — have to compete with students from the public education systems of Goa, Barbados, Trinidad, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada. In this competition, Bermuda students compete for Bermudian jobs and, as we all continually scream, also compete for Bermudian housing space.

A big chunk of Bermuda’s housing ‘crunch’ is driven by the vicious squash in, and high demand for, lower end rental units. This housing squash is driven by employment consequences that result in under-educated Bermudians who are unable to fill skilled and semi-skilled jobs; and their being supplanted by high-school graduates from Goa, Barbados, Trinidad, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada.

So, already feeling the impact of years of under-education; we’ve just been shown in that full page ad that we’re actually de-educating. Actually removing knowledge that was once put in. Now that takes some doing! That takes a really special skill!

These are the facts that have been displayed. That whole ad showed how vitally important it is to publish and display results. Now we know what facts apply to Bermuda’s public education system. These are the facts:

n Bermuda children are under-performing and are well behind their U.S. counterparts.

n The performance of Bermuda’s students actually declines between P5 and S3.

n Between 2001 and 2003, Bermuda’s teaching professionals collaborated to produce false and misleading results.

n Bermuda’s public education system is in a very bad state and it has deep social and economic consequences.

Minister Lister, bowed down by his cross, dragging around his anchor and chain, ought not seek any friends amongst Bermuda’s education establishment. He ought to consider them as educational ‘terrorists’ and go to war against them. As terrorists, and well-hidden from our view, these educational terrorists, making full use of their BA’s and MA’s have waged a hitherto successful campaign using obfuscation and subterfuge. That ad exposed them.

Now, having unleashed his weapons of public knowledge and public information, the Minister should at last begin to garner some public support for a determined offensive to stop the process of de-educating, re-start the process of educating, and raise the performance levels of both students and teachers.

If teacher standards cannot rise, then get rid of under-performing teachers. Bermuda’s public educating system must ultimately work for the benefit of Bermuda’s students, not the teachers. Right now Bermuda’s system is only benefiting Bermuda’s teachers.

That’s wrong, that’s dishonest, it’s nationally disastrous and it’s stupid![[In-content Ad]]

---