Legal challenges continue to stand in the way of the creation of an Education Authority, the Minister of Education has said.

Diallo Rabain was answering questions from Ben Smith, the Shadow Education Minister, during the consideration of the education budget in the House of Assembly on Friday.

At the outset of education reform, the Government promised an authority would be put in place to control the direction and development of education in Bermuda.

Mr Rabain told MPs: “In collaboration with the Attorney-General’s office, the legislation for the authority will be tabled in this legislative year.”

He added during questions: “There are all sorts of legal things that are being asked around that, so as we are able to discuss that more fully and how it will be formed, what it will look like, the costs, we will continue to update the public.”

In November 2022, Mr Rabain said that an Education Authority Working Group set up in 2021 was yet to determine how the board of an authority would be selected but that governance should be “supportive and enabling, not directing and controlling”.

The ministry received $142.6 million in this year’s Budget, an increase of $2.7 million on last year’s estimated allowance.

However, the adjusted spend last year was $145.4 million. Mr Rabain said the unplanned spend was owing to recently concluded union negotiated salary increases.

A total of $707,856 is set aside for consultants contract for the Innovation Unit Australia/New Zealand and additional funding is anticipated for consultancy for the next phases of education reform.

Mr Rabain made it clear that the consultancy firm, hired to redesign the public school system, may continue to be involved in education reform going forward.

“If we have to bring Innovation Unit back, we will bring them back. We keep the people in place we need to move education reform forward.”

However, he said the ultimate goal was for Bermuda’s public education system to be lead by Bermudians.

The Government announced in July 2021 that some primary schools would close, based on scores given in four weighted categories: 30 per cent for land conditions, 30 per cent for safety and health, and 20 per cent each for existing building conditions and transport.

A rethink was later announced, with the ministry pledging to rescore 15 public primary schools, giving “enhanced consideration for legacy, specifically for parishes with more than one school”.

Mr Rabain said the History and Legacy Committee, which has been re-evaluating the rescoring process, would invite school representatives to meetings starting this week.

He said: “It is really difficult to talk about history and legacy as what is important to me might not be important to you. The rescoring will be made public.”

He said a master plan for infrastructure development of school sites would be finalised once the rescoring process was complete.

Mr Rabain said a third signature senior school would open for S1 students at the Sandys Secondary Middle School site, offering hospitality and tourism, and educational services programmes.

The existing signature learning programmes at The Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge Academy are expanding to include sports and leisure management, and arts and culture respectively.

He added: “September 2025 is also the point where our signature senior schools will become five-year programmes.

“The remaining middle schools will continue to be phased out and our non-continuing primary school sites will be closed or phased out as aligned with the rescoring process that is currently under way.”

An allocation of $3.4 million was set aside for substitute teachers, representing a decrease of $260,000, which reflects a rethink of how to staff the school transformation teams that had been taking teachers out of the classrooms, according to Mr Rabain.

“For the upcoming fiscal year we have adjusted our strategy to have staff involved in the school transformation team complete their tasks after school hours,” Mr Rabain said.

“The shift aims to lessen the daily teaching and learning disruption, thereby reducing our reliance on substitute teachers.”

Mr Rabain said there would be no contract change for the teachers as they would be paid overtime.