Northlands Primary principal Dale Butler has called for a commission to be set up to address the Island's literacy problems.

While news that some 50 percent of CedarBridge Academy students were functioning below the required level came as no surprise to him, Mr. Butler said the problem had been "swept under the carpet for too long''.

And he stressed that a commission, of veteran educators and "those with clout in the community'' who cared, must be set up to make sure the problem was corrected.

"They (commission members) would almost be a pressure group to ensure that the resources that are needed in schools as a whole are in place,'' Mr. Butler told The Royal Gazette . "They will attempt to ensure that the guidelines are established and adhered to every year.

"They would set a target that every student should reach by the time they leave school.'' The commission will also be able to conduct needs assessments and evaluate various intensive overseas training programmes for teachers.

The Department of Education had its hands full with everything from leaking roofs to the hiring and firing of teachers, Mr. Butler noted, adding that Bermuda could no longer let the literacy problem linger.

"We need to pick up the EPT (Education Planning Team's) recommendation number eight,'' he said.

The recommendation, developed by a team led by former Chief Education Officer Dean Furbert in 1987, focussed on seven main goals: Establishing a public awareness programme to educate new parents/guardians on their role in developing literacy in their children; Providing programmes to ensure that three and four-year old children were exposed to foundation skills of literacy; Identifying students who are at risk at the primary level and providing remediation for those students; Providing personnel at the primary level to ensure the development of functional literacy; Providing language and numeracy programmes at the secondary level to develop and maintain literacy; and Providing a programme to allow functionally illiterate adults to achieve at least eighth grade literacy.

"We have to ensure that these goals are carried out given that the level of skills being demanded for present and upcoming jobs is higher than it's ever been,'' Mr. Butler stressed.

In addition to a literacy commission, he added that he believed that more pressure needed to be placed on the Finance Department to provide the resources that were so "desperately needed in education'' and more financial support for institutions such as CARE, The Reading Clinic, and the Learning Centre.

During his 12 years as principal of St. George's Secondary, Mr. Butler recalled, he consistently raised the issue of literacy, particularly when principals graded the work of incoming students.

"I could see over a four-to-five-year period that the quality of writing was decreasing rapidly,'' he said.

In response to his complaints, he added, the Department of Education made a policy that principals could no longer mark the papers.

"They should have conducted a study into why this was happening,'' Mr. Butler said.

The veteran educator attributed the declining literacy skills to a large number of students coming from an environment where reading was not a priority and language was deficient.

He also said some children had rejected foreign literature because they could not identify with it.

Mr. Butler added that he had personally addressed this by publishing local literature and had made reading a priority at Northlands. But he noted that the Education Ministry had been without an education officer for reading since Roslyn Burchall retired some five years ago.

"There has been no replacement for her and we have been drifting,'' he said.

"But to their credit, they have begun to place more emphasis on writing at the primary level. The seeds are being sown, but it is not enough.'' Education Minister Jerome Dill claimed that much harm could be done by "overreacting and not understanding what (CedarBridge principal) Mr. (Ernest) Payette was saying''.

"It is not a question of illiteracy or innumeracy,'' he said. "It is a question of some individuals not performing up to the level that is expected of them.'' Mr. Dill stressed that since his Ministry had identified "part of the problem'' they would be focussing on finding the solution. And he said they welcomed any suggestions. However, he admitted that he wished Mr. Butler had contacted him privately.