Education Minister Randy Horton has rejected claims that teachers have been left out of the ongoing reform of the public school system.

The Bermuda Union of Teachers took out a full-page advert in The Royal Gazette last week complaining that the Ministry of Education had "largely ignored teachers' voices".

Mr. Horton said in a statement yesterday that the union had been included in a recent series of presentations on progress — but had so far failed to give any "direct recommendations" to the Ministry on the best way forward.

BUT chief Mike Charles last night said teachers were maintaining their stance that they had been cut out of the loop.

The Minister's statement said: "We cannot understand nor accept the observation that we have not consulted nor accepted recommendations from various stakeholders.

"In fact, outside of our Government, Ministry faculty and staff and the public, we are yet to receive direct recommendations from the Bermuda Union of Teachers, who have not demonstrated that they have benefited from our presentations to them by way of follow up verbal or written questions to the Ministry of Education.

"Regrettably, they have chosen to direct all questions to the media first, then to the Ministry of Education by extension."

Told about Mr. Horton's remarks, Mr. Charles faxed The Royal Gazette a list of questions BUT had asked the Minister last month.

"The Minister must have forgotten, but on May 20 we sent him a list of questions to which he responded on May 27," said Mr. Charles.

"To say that is either stretching the truth a bit or something of the sort. The answers to our questions were extremely vague, just like most of their presentations."

Questions on the list included: what will staffing look like in September 2008?; what confidence can we have in the Ministry personnel (Hopkins Report re: disbanding of Ministry)?; and what is the role of the parents in the education of each child?

On the importance of keeping teachers informed, Mr. Charles added: "We are the people who deliver whatever it is that has to be delivered. We are the people on the front line. Our stance still stands. That's why we put that advert in the paper."

Regarding the queries raised in last week's BUT advert — and by Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons at the weekend — Mr. Horton said some did not warrant a reply.

But he outlined a number of the changes being implemented based on the recommendations in the Hopkins report a year ago and insisted that Professor David Hopkins was pleased with the progress being made to restructure the Ministry of Education.

Denying that the number of staff at the Ministry was growing, he said: "Those who state that the present process of restructuring the Ministry runs contrary to the Hopkins Report are incorrect. It is not the Ministry's intention to add to the number of staff within the Ministry but to redeploy staff so they can be better utilised.

"On numerous occasions, including last month, Dr. David Hopkins stated that he is satisfied with the progress of Ministry restructuring, including the creation of the Director of Academics, Director of Business and the Director of Educational Standards and Accountability and the assistant directors that support them."

He said the duties and responsibilities of the three new posts were made public in the job descriptions and that directors and assistant directors would be expected to spend as much time as possible in schools.

Mr. Horton revealed that Cabinet is being asked to consider a proposal for training for educators from the Centre for Leadership and Learning in the Arts and Science of Teaching which, if approved, will be implemented throughout the system.

Other changes include:

l The creation of a comprehensive strategic plan for education.

• The development of a school-based management and accountability system with each school measured against annual performance standards to determine the academic growth of students.

• A proposal to create five clusters of middle and primary schools, each of which will be assigned an assistant director to evaluate the performance of principals. The cluster boards are to be in place by the beginning of the school year in September 2009 and pre-schools will be represented on them.

• An evaluation of the curriculum and additional training on standards for teachers this summer and next year.