there was good news and bad news in the latest literacy test scores.

Bermuda has been in a state of shock since the release of test scores last year which showed Government school students were as far as two years behind their American counterparts.

Government, rightly, has made improving literacy standards one of its central goals and the early evidence shows that there is some improvement.

Most classes in primary and middle schools have made gains compared to last year -- and that's good. It is to be hoped that the gains made this year can be built on in the future.

The bad news is that the improvements do not go all the way through the school system. Indeed, test results in the last year in middle school and the first year of secondary school were actually worse in 2000 than they were in 1999.

That is bad news and shows that a huge amount of work needs to be done to make sure that the gains made in primary school are not lost later on.

It is also disheartening because one of the major reasons for Bermuda abandoning the old secondary school transfer exam and going to a system of comprehensive middle and secondary schools was because the old secondary schools were failing students, who were then coming out of primary schools ahead of their American peers.

According to the current test results, Bermuda students lag behind their American peers across the board, so Sen. Scott is right when he says "there is still a long way to go''.

He added: "Students in Bermuda are still reading below grade level in every year group. That is not acceptable.'' Government has not chosen to release results from individual schools, in part because the class sizes would be too small for meaningful comparison.

The reason may also be because the schools would see further flight if the results were released, causing havoc in a system which has already seen massive flight to private schools.

That may or may not be good policy and there are good arguments for holding individual schools accountable.

However, you can rest assured that the Ministry has the numbers for different schools -- and it is to be hoped that where one school's results are clearly better than others, that their successful habits are spread through the system. Where one school's are clearly worse, the principal and staff should be held accountable.