The chairman of the board tasked with implementing change in public schools yesterday described teachers union' leader Mike Charles as a gym teacher who has "had his 15 minutes of fame".

Philip Butterfield was highly critical of the general secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) at a meeting of the parliamentary Joint Select Committee on education and told MPs:"I don't give a damn that the unions are aggrieved."

The chairman of the interim executive board on education told the cross-party committee it was a "travesty" that Mr. Charles had become the public face of education in Bermuda.

Mr. Charles responded last night by saying: "Whether I was a physical education teacher has nothing to do with it. At least Iwas an educator and I can speak from that point. He speaks from a position of ignorance."

The attack on Mr. Charles came after Government Whip and joint select committee member Lovitta Foggo asked Bank of Bermuda CEO Mr. Butterfield why teachers and principals felt excluded from the reform process

Mr. Butterfield admitted that communication and collaboration had "not been ideal" but said the real problem was one of management.

"I do not believe today that teachers have an employer/employee relationship," he said, adding that the union saw teachers as being on a par with management.

"You can't have success in any enterprise until it is clear who is in charge," he added. "I think it's an absolute travesty that Mike Charles is the face of public education in this country. I think it's a travesty that the media go to Mike Charles. Mike Charles has frankly had his 15 minutes of fame."

He questioned why Mr. Charles, a "gym teacher", was deemed an opinion maker. "That indeed is a travesty. All of us in this room and citizens of this country should be ashamed of that reality."

The joint select committee is tasked with reviewing and reporting back to Parliament on how the recommendations in last year's Hopkins report on schools are being implemented.

Mr. Butterfield spoke to MPs yesterday at the House of Assembly about how he sees the system improving by 2013, telling them he wished he'd been given the power to hire and fire in the education system.

"I think to a large extent we have persons at work in the field of education who do not live with the risk of job loss," he said.

Mr. Butterfield said Bermuda's teachers should be able to go anywhere in the world and teach successfully but that wasn't the case at the moment and that standards needed to be raised.

Teachers needed to take some responsibility for the failure of the system, he added, arguing that the focus of any discussion on education should not be on their grievances but on children.

Describing the management of early education on the Island as a "shambles", he likened the whole system to a "house on fire" and said firm leadership was needed. "We have a lot of paddling going on but it's frenetic."

He banged his fist on the desk as he declared: "We are giving away our birthright every day we fail to educate our children."

Later Mr. Butterfield, brother of Premier Ewart Brown, asked that Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons apologise for remarks he made last week in the wake of Randy Horton being sacked as Education Minister by Dr. Brown.

Dr. Gibbons told the Mid-Ocean News the delays in education reform were down to the interim executive board. "Without being flippant, it is hard to fire your brother," he said.

Mr. Butterfield said yesterday: "I think I deserve an apology. I thought that was a personal disservice to me. Before we can proceed to have meaningful dialogue, I ask for an apology."

Dr. Gibbons replied: "I'm sorry if you were offended by the remark. It wasn't intended to be offensive but I'm concerned about the lack of progress in this area. I thought you should be as accountable as the Minister for the slowness or the lack of reform."

Mr. Charles said last night that Mr. Butterfield wanted to run the education system as he ran his bank. "Unfortunately, he is not an educator so he has no idea. That is why the reform is where it is. What Mr. Butterfield thinks of me has absolutely nothing to do with anything."