Education Minister Nalton Brangman has pledged to raise the bar on the quality of teaching in the Island’s schools.And he vowed to boost qualification requirements “for all subject areas and specialisations” in a bid to improve standards of teacher recruitment.The Education Minister yesterday held a press conference to give a “status report” on his Ministry, where he promised transparency and regular briefings on educational issues.Hiring for the new fiscal year will “fill some important existing posts” and “add posts in key teaching areas”, the Minister said.Government plans to hire five specialists in maths, science, physical education and health, plus a teacher for autistic students.Additionally, the Ministry will be “filling four vacant posts and adding two others in the Child Development Programme, and filling two education officer posts for psychology and school improvement and staff development”, Mr Brangman said.The Minister described the hiring as “key posts relating to special education”, and said a Green Paper on a new special education policy would be released in the coming months.A budget of $123 million is allocated for the Ministry and Department of Education in the 2013/14 fiscal year.Mr Brangman said he expected his Ministry to operate within that figure, rather than having to submit a revised figure for spending.In a nod to Opposition calls for the middle school system to be scrapped, he said: “Concern has been expressed regarding middle school education.“I have found that the Ministry, principals and teachers were already looking at the middle school concept and considering what we must do to enhance our outcomes at that level, and to better prepare students to enter secondary school.”However, he stressed, “stability and consistency” had to be preserved to measure progress with the new Cambridge Curriculum. Noting that education reform is a work of decades, Education Commissioner Wendy McDonell said: “I want you to know that this system is poised for greatness. You just have to stay the course.”Education reform following the Hopkins Report has been a matter of “continual, incremental change since 2007”, Ms McDonell said, adding: “Institutionalising change takes time. There is no quick fix”.“We are not where we were before,” she said, calling for patience with the Blueprint for Reform, which is benchmarked for 2015.Useful website: www.moed.bm.