Principals across Bermuda have called for an urgent inquiry into the schools system after new figures revealed less than half of students graduated last summer.

Education Minister Randy Horton today acknowledged the rates made ?grim reading? and said he had already would ask for a comprehensive review to be completed by the end of May.

Last June, 48 percent of final year public education students graduated - up from 43 percent the previous year and 38 percent in 2004.