Money will be found to carry out Government’s plan to transform the education system no matter the cost, the Minister of Education has pledged.

Diallo Rabain declined to put a figure on the estimated cost of the proposals.

He said: “Cost is not something we have factored in.”

In an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette, he added: “If we are committed to reforming education, we have to be committed to providing the funding to move in that direction. We cannot afford not to do what needs to be done for our children.

“We are very careful not to put figures out there. We need to say, 'this is what our children need and how do we implement that’?

“It’s a sound mindset as it doesn’t leave us trapped by over-promising and-under delivering – we want to under promise and over deliver.”

The full interview is here.

A total of nine primary schools would close with the renovation and expansion of nine others under the proposed changes. A new primary school would also be built in Devonshire.

New curricula designed to reflect “21st century learning” are being considered and preparations made for schools to become accredited to international standards.

The Ministry of Education’s consultation document said the majority of the curriculum at primary school level was “misaligned and antiquated”.

But Mr Rabain said the present curriculum could remain in use, but run alongside others that were better suited to pupils with different learning styles.

He added: “We can’t continuously evaluate our children based on one metric.

“We have to come up with ways of meeting students where they are as that is where they are going to excel.”

Mr Rabain said staff reductions were expected as part of the proposals, but redundancies were not likely to be widespread.

He added: “We are committed to ensuring the professional development that educators need to be successful in this new system will be provided.

“There will be every opportunity for people to do what they need to do, to remain in the system.”

The proposals were developed from Plan 2022: Bermuda's Strategic Plan for Public School Education, which was the culmination of a public consultation process that started in the first quarter of 2017.

The consultation deadline for the parish primary schools part of the plan is Friday.

There will be more consultation on other parts of the of the proposals, including senior signature schools.

To register views on the plan, visit www.moed.bm or e-mail consultation@moed.bm