March 17, 2014

Dear Sir,

To the Hon John Barritt and copied to journalists at The Royal Gazette.

Your recent article ‘Education is not just a job for Government alone’ has motivated me to write down ideas I have tossed around in my head for some time.

As a former Minister of Education I did have some insight into the workings of Bermuda’s education system during my tenure from 1993 to 1995. It was the beginning of the introduction of a new curriculum and also the introduction of middle schools.

Just after I completed being the Minister in 1995 there were two very interesting reports on surveys on Education; one was Canadian and the other was British.

They were particularly interesting for they came to the same basic conclusion independently, that teacher training was inadequate. That one year, following a first degree or its equivalent, was not sufficient to produce properly qualified teachers.

After my experience as Minister I had come to the same conclusion.

When I was the Minister we had two very qualified former headmistresses act as monitors of all the newly qualified teachers who had entered the Government school system. At the end of their first year of teaching we had them give a report on their experience. They each said that without the continual assistance of the two monitors they would very likely have quit the profession before the end of their first term.

I realise that those who are naturally good teachers will probably say that their one year was sufficient.

Perhaps the answer is for the Ministry of Education to insist on a Master’s Degree in Education for a teacher to be employed in the Government school system.

There would likely be ‘howls’ of objections to such a radical idea, the main one being the cost. But surely if the whole idea is to raise the standard of teaching in Bermuda there could be ways to alleviate the burden of the additional cost to the individual.

Could it not be a worthwhile effort if the end result is to improve the Education of Bermuda’s children?

DR C.R. TERCEIRA