Dear Sir,

Tucked away on Page 9 of The Royal Gazette of November 12 is the bad news for young Bermudians up to Primary 6 level; that, under the Cambridge Checkpoint system, they achieved in mathematics a score of 1.9 out of a potential 6.

A disgraceful failure rate that few in Government even acknowledge.

In plain English, primary-school children in government schools are being deprived of an education — or are, at best, being cheated out of one.

Bermuda spends one of the highest sums per pupil on education in the Western world, and yet we continue to have an educational system that is at the bottom of the heap.

The educational system is robbing our children of the ability to compete in the modern world, and is condemning them to low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives. Yet nothing is done by the Government to improve the situation.

Let me quote from a question in a 1933 Eleven Plus entrance exam in Britain.

“A man sets out at 9.15am to walk from A to B, a distance of 15 miles. He walks at the rate of 3.75mph. His friend agrees to cycle from A to B and travels at 11.25mph. At what time should the friend start out so that they may arrive at B together?”

Note the date 1933 — 86 years ago.

I wonder how many 11-year-olds could answer that question today? How many teachers? How many officials at the Ministry of Education? How many Members of Parliament?

More than 50 per cent of parents in Bermuda now send their children to private school because they know that our public system is fraudulent.

It is a public disgrace that none of our politicians have been able to change this rotten system.

Yet we have a proposal on the table that our medical system, which I think is one of the best in the world, is to be brought under the control of the same people who have shown massive incompetence at managing our education system.

Are we collectively going mad by wanting the stumblebums in government to do to our medical system what they have done to our education system?

ROBERT STEWART

Devonshire

Editor’s note: Eleven Plus answer — 11.55am