Education Commissioner Wendy McDonnell has been tasked with improving teaching and learning in public schools almost four years after a team of experts raised the alarm about standards.Mrs McDonnell will give up her role running the Department of Education on a day-to-day basis to become Commissioner with responsibility for Teaching and Learning.Education permanent secretary Warren Jones, meanwhile, will take on the duties of Acting Commissioner with responsibility for Operations.The changes are part of a renewed effort to implement recommendations made by Professor David Hopkins in May 2007, after he and his review team concluded that the Island's education system was “on the brink of meltdown”.The team's report concluded: “There is a culture of low expectations and lacklustre teaching that only principals can address.”Later in 2007, US expert Henry Johnson was brought in as consultant executive officer for education.His remit was to implement the Hopkins recommendations, including improving teaching standards and getting better results from students. He left the Island in March 2009.A parliamentary joint select committee set up in 2008 to ensure that the ten key recommendations in the Hopkins report were implemented is no longer meeting and has yet to publish any findings.A press release issued by Government yesterday said Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith was announcing the “first steps aimed at putting teaching and learning at the forefront of the Ministry's mission”.It said the Minister had re-read the Hopkins report, examined the status of the recommendations, studied the Ministry's Blueprint for Education and met with the Board of Education, Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) and the Association of School Principals. After doing so, continued the press release, “she decided to adopt the BUT's theme of ‘Keep it Simple'. That means a direct focus on teaching and learning”.The press release said Mrs McDonnell had a successful background in championing education reform in Canada and had been given her new role in order to “lead the transformation of the Bermuda public school system”.“As such, she will have the authority to do whatever it takes to move the necessary reforms forward and to ensure that the support needed for our principals and teachers to achieve the best teaching and learning for our students is in place.”The release said the permanent secretary remained “ultimately responsible for the delivery of the Government's agenda”.