A disturbing picture of the literacy problem increasing with age emerged yesterday with the release of literacy scores.

And the tell-tale results have forced Government to admit that the results are poor.

The scores show Bermudian students in the public school system consistently fall below their counterparts in the US.

Education Minister Milton Scott yesterday released scores achieved in two different tests of literacy, the Stanford Test which students sat in October 1998 and the Terra Nova Test which they took in June.

In both cases and at all levels, most of the Island's public school students were seen to be well below the expected standard. But perhaps even more worrying was that the margin of failure was greater among the older students.

See statistics on Page 3 The figures shown are averages and the Ministry of Education, while not revealing the names of the schools, noted that some students actually performed above average in both tests.

Sen. Scott last night refused to divulge the performance of individual schools.

"I am not prepared to give out that information,'' he said.

But in a prepared Press statement he noted: "This Government is not satisfied with the system wide performance of our students. We are requiring that our staff have a very clear and straightforward goal to improve that performance.'' The Minister revealed the goal and six objectives which have been set for the year.

"The goal for our system is to improve the outcome of all students so that the Government system is the system of first choice for parents,'' he said.

Literacy problems The objectives include: Ensuring that by June 2003 all students who complete Primary Three, Primary Six and Middle Level Three will be reading on grade level; Publishing assessment results annually or more often for the public; Improving parent education so that 75 percent of all parents at all levels will state that they are aware of the services available to their children within the school system; Improving customer service so that 90 percent of parent complaints are dealt with to the satisfaction of the parent; Employing staff who are appropriately qualified on entry to service and provide continuing training to staff in areas relevant to the improvement of the system; and Providing adequate resources to staff and schools to enable them to carry out their responsibilities.

Responding to criticism that he should have released the figures weeks ago, Sen. Scott explained: "I wanted the ones who are directly involved to have a chance to look at the information first.

"We first looked at them at the Ministry and then shared them with school principals who shared them with their staff and some PTAs. And now I've released them to the general public.'' "The objectives have been communicated to principals, teachers and central office staff and this Government will hold them accountable for achieving them,'' Sen. Scott pointed out.

"A draft literacy plan to address literacy on a system-wide basis is being developed by a core committee of central office staff appointed by the Chief Education Officer.'' On completion of the draft plan, the Minister will consult with principals, teachers, PTAs and "any other organisations associated with literacy''.

LITERACY TEST SCORES Stanford Test Terra Nova Test October 1998 June 1999 Year US BDA US BDA Primary 3 2.1 1.8 2.9 2.7 Primary 4 3.1 2.7 3.9 3.7 Primary 5 4.1 3.3 4.9 3.8 Primary 6 5.1 3.7 5.9 5.2 Middle 1 6.1 4.0 6.9 4.4 Middle 2 7.1 4.0 7.9 5.3 Middle 3 8.1 5.5 8.9 6.7 Senior 3 9.1 5.5 9.9 7.7