Workers are being laid off.  Mortagages are going into default.  Rents and house prices are sagging.  Businesses are merging or just liquidating.  Even the private schools are starting to “downsize”.

The feelgood way to explain all of this is to blame it on the nebulous global recession.

That’s shifting a lot of the blame … because much of this damage is self inflicted.

Policies of the Bermuda Government (including constant xenophobia against the international sector, term limits and other mishandled immigration issues, and ill-considered increases in corporate taxes) have effectively downsized the population of Bermuda.  Those highly paid executives, when they leave, take their families and sizeable rents and other household expenditures with them.

That creates immediate pressure on the local economy.

Duh.

What’s amazing is the ringing silence still from the PLP Government about what they plan to do to reign in the huge costs of the public sector and to restimulate the local economy.

Only 22.96% of our senior school students “demonstrate proficiency in Mathematics” using the Bermuda Criterion–Referenced Test … yet we have a 99% graduation rate.  Proficiency is a grade of greater than 60%.

In addition, using the international Terra Nova exams, our senior school students tested below the mid-point in all subjects when compared to their US equivalents.

I hope detailed information will be released for every school in the Bermuda system.

And then every now again you get a quote like this burst of honesty:

The Collector of Customs said that there had been 236 applicants for 12 entry level vacancies, but that only 12 of these had passed the written tests with only eight getting through both the written and drug tests.

That’s shocking, especially when a passing grade is only 60 out of 100.

Customs is saying that only 5% of applicants have acceptable literacy and math skills, and of that “cream” 25% flame out due to illegal drug use.

You may recall similar recent quotes from the Fire Service and Public Transportation Board.  Note the rough consistency of the literacy and drug statistics.

Chief fire officer Vincent Hollinsid said of applicants:

“They are failing because of the academics, they are failing because of the medical exams, they are failing because of a number of other reasons — it’s mind boggling to me.

“There are people who have failed the drug test, people who have failed the psychological test to ensure you can handle the stress of the job and you are able to handle an organised, disciplined environment.”

The exam should be a grade 12 level test, equivalent to senior four (S4) in Bermuda’s public school system, and suitable for a 17-year-old high school graduate.

He said the majority of applicants were at a grade eight or middle three (M3) level i.e. that of a 13-year-old student.

OMG:  that is a utter condemnation of the local school system.

Bermuda First, which was heralded as a bipartisan effort to gain the input from the business community, quickly disappeared without a trace.

Even more worrisome is the Hopkins Report on improving education which has been sitting on the shelf for three years now.  That report included 10 recommendations (see after the hop below)  …. where are we on those?

Nowhere it seems. The Hopkins Report recommended that Bermuda approach educational reform based on “re-professionalisation” rather than “restructuring” of the schools.

Yet it is just that “restructuring” that the Ministry of Education proposes with its secretive proposal to close a bunch of primary schools.  Initially reported as a cost-saving measure, after public outcry the Ministry has done an about turn to say the closures would allow additional senior schools “to improve student outcomes”:

“Having multiple senior schools allows different pathways for students. Schools that focus on technology, performing arts, a sports academy, a gifted and talented school that provides the students academic programmes that end earlier and then go on to sports focused activities. We could offer a business and hospitality focused school.”

It strikes me that this is an incredible folly, and an example of the tinkering that has lead to such poor performance in the public schools in the first place.  Our failing public education system already has a huge budget per student …. which would surely need to grow even further to add these specialist programmes …. none of which deal with the sad truth that Johnny can’t read.

It seems to me that the Ministry should focus more on the core problems:  low quality teaching, inadequate teacher training, an overstuffed administration, the veiling of performance against standards, and lapsed parent involvement.

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE HOPKINS REPORT

1:   Dramatically improve the quality of teaching

2:   Move quickly to improve the quality of leadership by principals

3:   Radically reform the Ministry of Education

4:   Strengthen the strategic management of the education system

5:   Introduce delegation and transparent accountability at all levels

6:   Federate secondary and tertiary education, and, as soon a possible, raise the school leaving age

7:   Respond to concerns about inclusion and behaviour

8:   Create self-governing Federations around clusters of primary schools and each middle school

9:   Align the curriculum both vertically and horizontally

10:   Harness the power of parents, business and the community in the reform effort

The New York Times reports that

Basically no countries with low levels of education have managed to be democratic over the long term, and almost every country with a high level of education has remained a stable democracy.

A Study of Employment, Earnings, and Educational Gaps between Young Black Bermudian Males and their Same-Age Peers (pdf, 1 Mb)

At 233 pages, it is worth skimming, and then reading again properly.  This subject tends to be clouded by staccato emotion and political games – and Professor Mincy’s report is a detailed and thoughtful analysis.

Of course, you can cheat and look at his policy recommendations starting on page 186.

And the Premier is busy pushin’ em out the door – later today the Bermuda First study is scheduled to be released.

A Washington lawyer friend recently told me about layoffs at his firm. I asked him who was getting axed. He said it was interesting: lawyers who were used to just showing up and having work handed to them were the first to go because with the bursting of the credit bubble, that flow of work just isn’t there. But those who have the ability to imagine new services, new opportunities and new ways to recruit work were being retained. They are the new untouchables.

That is the key to understanding our full education challenge today. Those who are waiting for this recession to end so someone can again hand them work could have a long wait. Those with the imagination to make themselves untouchables — to invent smarter ways to do old jobs, energy-saving ways to provide new services, new ways to attract old customers or new ways to combine existing technologies — will thrive. Therefore, we not only need a higher percentage of our kids graduating from high school and college — more education — but we need more of them with the right education.

With Bermuda’s aspirations to be a business hub, we must educate our kids both in the basic subjects and the spirit of innovation.  If not, they will become a permanent underclass, and the business will go elsewhere.

Bermuda is small – and the swishy crowd can’t feel isolated from the discontent, violence, and uselessness that is festering in some of our young people.  Believe me – coming at the same time as the trial for a senseless murder that occurred at a teen birthday beach party – this nasty little event has probably sent more ripples through the international business community than most of the recent political scandals.  Because it drives home that no matter how much money you make, the Bermuda crap will affect you and it will affect your children.  Wealth and privilege can’t isolate you on an island that’s only 21 square miles.

Media reports talk about a large group of brawling gang members wearing matching clothes, who ran amok and made their escape before Police arrived.

How long does it take to mobilise a Police response in Hamilton?  We have video footage, we have eyewitnesses, we have a victim (who must have known his attackers, who were wearing matching clothes, and fleeing a point bounded three sides by water).  But we don’t have reports of a single arrest.  That’s not promising.

Bermuda is at risk from lots of external forces, ranging from Obama and the G20 to the Great Recession.  But the biggest risks to our community seem to be coming from self-destructive Bermudians.

Under the terms of the proposed deal (never disclosed), in return for the hefty Bermuda subsidy of UWI, Bermudian students would get a discount on tuition.

I remain skeptical.  It’s more ideology than about educational opportunity. It would be more appropriate for Bermuda to dedicate those funds to the local scholarship pool, allowing students and their families to select the most appropriate college or university for them.

And by decrying that fact that the union’s leader – a gym teacher by background – was deemed an opinion maker, he opens a whole new can of worms.

“That indeed is a travesty. All of us in this room and citizens of this country should be ashamed of that reality.” 

“I don’t give a damn that the unions are aggrieved.” 

I’ll point out that many our grand leaders also came from less glamorous occupations before hitting the political jackpot. I understand Mr. Butterfield’s frustrations … after all, he is the head of a hierarchical bank where his word is command and it’s true that many of Bermuda’s education problems are people/leadership problems. But his comments come across as arrogant and unhelpful to our goal of fixing public education.

Government’s education consultant, Henry Johnson, seems on a much more even keel:

“I think Bermuda can create its own education future and in a real sense create its own national future.  There’s an inverse relationship between the amount of squabbling going on over education reform and the learning outcomes for students … I think it’s really a waste of time when we can be spending energy trying to figure out ways to educate kids, rather than to argue about whether somebody should or should not be in a role. I think that’s not very helpful. There’s only so much energy that each of us has. If we choose to use it to solve issues, it’s time better spent.”

The 96 percent rate is based on the number of students entering S4.  The rate is 71 percent when based on number of students entering S1, which is close to the United States average. Bermuda’s S1 graduation rate is up from just 44 percent in 2004.

So, that’s upbeat news.  But, Bermudians must be wondering why the Ministry did not reveal the GCSE statistics (which were released by some of the island’s private schools weeks ago).

UPDATE:  The Royal Gazette and the Bermuda Sun focus on the same subject, namely if the academic performance of students has risen along with the graduation rate.

UPDATE2: I’ve removed a query regarding the actual numbers of graduates.  Those numbers were apparently provided by the Ministry but not reported by the media. Hey media, give us real numbers not pre-digested summaries.  Hey Government, get a better website for your press releases.