The Government has confirmed that a contract for the overseas consultant charged with redesigning Bermuda’s education system has been renewed.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education said last night in response to questions that the contract for Innovation Unit Australia/New Zealand had been extended until the end of this year.

“The Innovation Unit's contract has been renewed from January 2025 to December 2025 and in accordance with ICO rules, the contract will be gazetted with the next round of contracts published,” the spokeswoman said.

The ministry, however, did not disclose the value of the contract.

Diallo Rabain, the former education minister, said in October that talks were being held regarding a potential third renewal and The Royal Gazette understands representatives of the overseas firm were on the island in recent weeks.

A previous renewal took the contract up to the end of last September. Since then, no government notices of a renewal of any contract, unless below the $50,000 required to be declared, have been published on the Official Gazette.

Section 6 (6) of the Public Access to Information Act 2010 dictates that public authorities publish contracts of $50,000 or above “on a regular basis”.

The Progressive Labour Party platform released before the February 18 General Election said the party was committed to “transitioning away from overseas consultants to accelerate the growth of sustainable, home-grown leadership in education reform”.

David Burt, the Premier, said in a recent interview with The Royal Gazette: “I believe it has been renewed. You have to make sure that you make the transition. IU is going to be needed for the near future but the platform speaks to the fact we have to develop our own home-grown talent.”

The IU was drafted in to help redesign Bermuda’s public education system in 2020. It has had its contract renewed twice, bringing the total declared cost to almost $6 million.

When Mr Rabain first announced its involvement, he said the consultancy would begin at the end of March 2020 and extend until September 2022, about 2½ years, at a cost of $2.1 million, revised from an original estimate of $950,000.

Mr Burt said: “There was an RFP that was put out for change managers for education. They won the RFP, they have experience in this.

“Early on in this, we recognised that it is difficult to run an existing system while trying to build a new one with the same teams.

“They are not driving the process, they have expertise in change management in education.

“Learning First [made up of local stakeholders] has been getting feedback all the time from parents, teachers, educators and different groups of people to be a part of the process.

“I think it only makes sense that you do not have a permanent reliance on consultants and you develop the expertise on the island.”