Bermuda's teacher of the year Reeshemah Swan said most people believed improvements needed to be made to the education system -- but often disagreed about the priority problems.

The CedarBridge Academy teacher, who won the title of Bermuda's Teacher of the Year 2000, said the perceptions of teachers and parents rarely corresponded because they saw different sides to schooling.

She penned her ideas about the future role of public education in shaping Bermuda's future and said there needed to be more collaboration to make it more effective.

"Teachers' perceptions of what goes on in school rarely correspond with those of the public,'' she said.

"The problems teachers see in their classrooms are not the same ones the public believes are there.

"For example, in recent years, teachers said the biggest problem in their schools was parents' lack of support and interest, but the public said it was lack of discipline and drug use.

"Public education is the responsibility of the public. If it is to play a major role and effective role in shaping Bermuda's future, there clearly needs to be a greater collaboration between the public and Bermuda's educators and officials.'' She said public education had been all too successful in "fulfilling its time-honoured purpose of moulding young citizens to take their rightful places in the Bermudian society -- as predetermined by their race, culture and socioeconomic status.'' But she said it was time to break the mould.

Ms Swan said education practises should be based on democracy and equity.

And she said teachers and students should be critical players in making decisions and shaping policy.

"It is evident that public education plays a major role in the shaping of Bermuda's future,'' she added.

"It is a vital service that is provided to the majority of the young people in Bermuda. It must not only educate, but it must nurture our Island's young people.

"Public education is much more than a working system of mass production. It is the pulse, the heartbeat of the community.

"The challenge is great and there is much work to be done.

"It is the responsibility of the public to assist and ensure that our goals are accomplished. For when spiders' webs unite, they can tie up a lion.''