Parents and teachers at St George’s Preparatory School have told the Government to pause planned changes they brand “deficient”.

The comments in an open letter to Diallo Rabain, the Minister of Education, come after it was announced all but three of Bermuda’s 18 public primary schools will be rescored to ensure that the right decision is being made on which ones to close.

The Government made the change after a tense town hall meeting last week in response to a suggestion by the West End Warriors, a pressure group fighting to keep West End Primary School open, that the scoring process for the school was flawed.

After the move, a spokesman for the St George’s Preparatory School’s Parents and Teachers Association said: “We would like to reiterate and add our voices to the growing concerns from the community including the West End Warriors, about the primary school reform process which we feel has been illogical and deficient, and there must be a mutually agreed criteria and open process to move forward.

“We understand six persons including the Permanent Secretary of Education, the commissioner of education, comptroller of education, education facilities manager, the senior estate surveyor, department of parks, lands and buildings and a building manager of the Ministry of Public Works completed a tabletop exercise to make decisions that would transform the landscape of education in our island.

“These persons are not involved in the maintenance of St George’s Preparatory School and never spoke with representatives from St George’s Preparatory School for an understanding of the facility, the community involvement of our school, or any other of the ‘study factors’ used.

“To make critical decisions about the future of our children, school assessments needed to be rigorous and fair, must fundamentally rely on the stakeholders’ input, and at a minimum required a site visit.”

The PTA group called for there to be no closure without funding and infrastructure being put in place.

The spokesman added: “We agree that education reform including school closures, is a necessary endeavour.

“Reassessing the selection criteria and process of the parish primary strategic location team could bring about necessary buy-in that the reform currently lacks.

“We believe the criteria cannot just focus on the facility, but must also look at instructional quality, student outcomes, administration and other qualitative items.

“During this reassessment period, we would like to explore other options to ultimately deliver on the Government’s stated goal of reducing the number of schools due to low birth rates.

“This is not about just St George’s Preparatory – this is about the future of the public school system for our island that allows every child the opportunity to succeed. That cannot be taken lightly, or the private sector is the only option that parents will see to achieve success.

“The uncertainty around our children’s future, the teachers, and other staff has been going on for too long.”

The Government has said that all parishes with more than one primary school will be re-evaluated.

It also said that as part of the new scoring, there will be an enhanced consideration for the legacy of schools.