A new student management system in Bermuda's public schools is producing misleading attendance figures, the House of Assembly heard.said on Monday that the Chancery SMS system ? which allows teachers to record attendance and produce reports ? was "cumbersome and user unfriendly" and was "undergoing all sorts of challenges".

He claimed that if a teacher failed to enter data for a student the system would automatically record them as present.

"We know that the whole purpose is to produce a whole range of reports, attendance reports, performance reports," he said. "One of the schools indicates that they could no longer produce the kind of reports that captured positive images of the school."

He said the school was having trouble accurately recording attendance levels. He was also aware of problems in producing timetables for children.

"When you look at this tool that has been placed in the school system one has to wonder how much this Government really wants to see about what's going on," he said., delivering his education budget brief to the House, had earlier said the system was implemented to improve the accuracy of data.

He said the Ministry had brought in Vancouver-based Chancery Software to install the centralised student information system and that all schools now submitted daily attendance figures.

"Chancery SMS is based on open standards that support safer, easier and more seamless integration of data with other applications," he said.

"This allows our schools to improve the accuracy of the data they keep, including data on attendance, grades, behaviour and the like."

Responding to Mr. Darrell, he said: "There were some real challenges at the start of the year. However, they worked their way through. Progress reports have gone out and they went out on time. Report cards for semester one were accurate and on time."