January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Who let the dogs out?
I ask that question every time I think about the Education Ministry and consider its twists, turns, stumble, its consultant, and its Minister. With increasing frequency, I find myself wondering: "Is Bermuda's public education system run by something other than intelligent human beings?"
Step back and look at the whole matter.
Bermuda's public school system consists of 5,958 students [in 2007]. Eighteen primary schools [2,934 students]; five middle schools [1,177 students]; and two senior schools [1,425 students]. There are 380 students in preschool and 42 in special schools.
Compared to North America, or Europe, or even the Caribbean; these 5,958 pupils, living in a 13,000 acre space constitute one school district. Elsewhere, this one school district would have a cadre of classroom teachers and a small administration overseeing the whole teacher plus pupil group.
In its primary, middle, and high school public school system, Onslow County School District in Jacksonville North Carolina has 13,884 students. There are 944 teachers for this system. There is one teacher for every fifteen students.
Now compare to Bermuda.
With 5,958 students in September 2007, there were 1,234 employees in the whole of Bermuda's Education Ministry. There was one departmental person for every five students. Only 897 of these persons were described as 'teachers'. There was one teacher for every seven students.
So Bermuda has a very small school district. Bermuda's very small district has a huge 337 person Education Ministry group headed by an Education Minister. This 337 person Cerberus-like monster is supposed to ensure that the 5,958 pupils in its care are properly educated.
This Cerberus has been failing in this task for over twenty years. For over twenty years it has failed to do the two things that it needs to do. The first is to hire good teachers. Then require those good teachers to follow a good - that is viable and relevant - curriculum that will result in the pupils graduating with knowledge and basic skills that enables them to fit into their receiving community.
What curriculum?
There's no better curriculum than the one that the Cerberii once used, then began abandoning in the late 1970's; and that the Cerberii fully abandoned in 2001. The curriculum? It's exactly the same curriculum that the Berkeley Institute and Warwick Academy shared, for twenty-five years. They shared this curriculum from 1970 when Warwick Academy went public to 1995 when Warwick Academy - wisely as it turns out - reverted to being a private school.
It's the time-proven curriculum that is still used - never been changed - by Saltus and the Bermuda High School.
The packs of Cerberii at the Ministry are working feverishly - maniacally - at convincing Bermuda's sadly gullible public that 'cluster boards' and boardroom discussions and new titles for newly added Cerberii and lots more money and lots more polysyllabic words and lots more meetings and lots more TV shows will fix the basic problem.
In doing this, the Ministry is doing what it does best. Obscures reality. Camouflages facts. Conceals truths. The Ministry's greatest interest is in preserving its 337 jobs. The Ministry is NOT really concerned about the 5,958 pupils.
If the Ministry were really concerned, it would let the good teachers and good principals do their job. If it were really concerned, the Ministry would seek to interfere as little as possible in what goes on inside the classroom, but would always consider results and would act decisively and publicly when results were bad.
But this Ministry - this Cerberus - has a record of concealing poor performances and deliberately telling something other than the demonstrable truth. [Amongst others, see my column of 04 Nov 05].
So I'm right back where I started: "Who let the dogs out?"[[In-content Ad]]
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