Bermuda College must push all students to persevere with their work - no matter how many times they fail, President Dr. Michael Orenduff has claimed.

Addressing the Hamilton Lions Club last week, he said Bermuda College had to be the answer for all students on the Island, not only those who found learning easy.

He said he believed everyone could learn anything, if they tried.

And although not all students were scholars he said, they were all very able, it was just a case of helping them to believe in themselves and having the patience to help them.

Dr. Orenduff, who took over at the helm of the college last July, has been given a brief to change the direction of the college and make it more in tune with the Island's needs within three years.

That means getting rid of courses that are not in demand in Bermuda, for example Latin, and perhaps providing more accountancy courses or classes for motor mechanics.

Yesterday, he said steps had already been taken to make the college more efficient and Bermuda-friendly, but he said the mindset had to change with everyone.

He said: "Everyone, with the exception of some people with severe disabilities, can learn something in further education.

"Everyone can learn everything we teach. This does not just happen. Students have to work hard, they have to put time in, they have to have the books and lab equipment, and the right tutors. Some learn faster than others, but everyone can learn.

"Everyone in this room can learn to play the piano. Everyone in this room can do math, and everyone can learn to speak German.

"We might not be the best at that, but we can do it. There is nothing that we teach at the college that people cannot learn. This is a powerful message. If we can build our college around this concept, we can unlock the potential of the entire population of Bermuda."

Dr. Orenduff said he wanted to see Bermuda become the country in the world with the most educated people.

And he said it was not difficult to achieve, especially for a country of Bermuda's size.

But he said you did not do that by changing the population. He said you did it by changing the institutions of further education.

The president said he wanted to make the college a place where people could learn a number of different skills and feel proud - not just a college for academics.

And he said if people failed the first time, it was the college's responsibility to keep on pushing them, keep on testing them, until they passed.

He said he wanted the college to become a model where if half of the students failed a subject, they would not be written off as people who were unable to do it. Instead, the college should be asking what it was doing wrong.

The president, who said he started out his working life as a plumber, said his approach to testing pupils was to allow them to take the exams as often as they needed outside of usual class time, without penalties if they failed.

That way, he said, it reduced the anxiety some people felt before tests, which ultimately caused them to perform below their norm. And he said removing the penalty gave them an incentive to keep on taking the test again.

He said all tests should be like driving tests: If you fail it four times, when you eventually pass, you get the same licence as everyone else.

"The main thing this (no penalty method) does is that when they sit down to take the test for the first time and the mark doesn't matter, they don't get math anxiety.

"We are just trying to get people to a certain skill level."

Dr. Orenduff, who has started to take a math class at the college this year, added: "Part of my job is to convince people they can do math. Everybody can do math. If a lot of people fail (at it) then maybe we need to go slower, maybe we need to stretch the course out for longer, or maybe we need better text books.

"That's what we are hoping to do at Bermuda College. We welcome every student that is willing to learn. That is the only criteria. If you don't want to learn, you won't learn."