The only thing that is not OK is you and your warped analysis of these results. If in your family, you have 5 children and 2 of your 5 children decide to sit an exam and they both pass, then you are concluding that 40% of your children passed which by inference alone, would indicate that 60% of your children failed. But that would be incorrect because the other 3 children did not sit the exam so should not be included in your analysis.

So yes the true picture is that out of 168 students who took the English exam, 62% gained a grade of C or better. Leave it at that and don’t put your spin on it. These 168 students did well and I am proud of them and I don’t believe in your false congratulations. You need to take an exam in data analysis

I’m not making this disctinction to criticise the students; I’m just trying to make sense of the stats we’re given, which are murky and, I think, misleading. Look at the Technology subject. 7 students took the exam; only one “passed”, but evidently with a grade that was D or below. The other 6 didn;t grade at all. Out of 350 students, one gets somewhere between D and G.

The MOED actually establishes a higher standard of looking for grades of C and above.

1. The Bible includes nothing about sience and math.
2. The Bible is designed for mind control but no other forms of education fall under this category.
3. Religion is bad for humanity / divisive? Everything that people get involved with becomes divisive. Politics, various organizations, schools, boards, sporting teams etc etc. Seems to me that People are divisive and not so much religion.

Your idea of “free thinking” is free from what exactly? Seems to me that a strong case could be made for just the opposite.

With all respect.

The spin by comparing to a world average is an insult. At the high level, let us have a metric measuring performance per head for the whole of that public school year population and a similar measure including a cost per head metric and use these as a baseline for year on year performance. Education is a results business, let us start measuring the real results compared to our real results and strive to improve every year. Comparing us to different baselines every year means nothing for year on year performance, its apples v oranges and is pure SPIN

Not exactly stellar results are they.

Intelligence is way to diverse amongst individuals, to be measured by the testing systems popularly used. For example, These tests does nothing to determine a child’s critical thinking ability and problem solving skills, as it pertains to real world applications. Test results are just gimmicks used by politicians to give us the perception that they are doing the people’s job. But is it really benefiting our children and by extension, Bermuda.

What we need is an Education system that will educate each and every child. Educate them in a way, which will see them maximize their fullest potential. For this to be done, such a system must first recognize that they are all different and as such, they will have a variety of intelligences in varying degrees.

We cannot put all the emphasis on academical intelligence and expect that magically, we are going to also produce good tradesmen. To put this in perspective, when I say academical, I am referring to the the folks that will pursue a carrier in the world of academia. Tradesmen also need academics but in a different way.

To get back to the point, we tend to put all the emphasis in one area and by doing that, we totally ignore the fact that we are dealing with individuals. If the education system is to be successful, we must embrace all the other forms of intelligence, which are as important. To put it scientifically simple, we are neurologically wired to do different things.

To make the point, why do you think that some people can sing and others can’t. The singer has an innate ability to sing and there are varying degrees to this talent set. If this singer is to succeed, in what is an highly competitive area, all the right things must happen and one of them being, she has to be in an environment that says singing is a good thing.

So likewise, if your carpenter to be, finds himself in a Bermuda that says, only the Accountants and Insurance executives are important, then this Carpenter to be, will never be. He didn’t know that he could have been a good carpenter, all he knew was, he found it difficult to learn math and have always struggled to read. He couldn’t remember anything they thought him about history, geography or anything else for that sake. He struggled to learn his time tables when others found it so easy to do.

The truth of the matter is, this carpenter to be also needs to know math, he doesn’t need to know calculus but he needs math. He also needs to be able to read, not necessarily fast, but he has to read effectively. Once these are mastered, the limit is the sky.

So why did he struggle in math, when his natural abilities will depend on him having a good comprehension of math. The answer to that is, the same neurological wiring that gave him his Mechanical aptitude, is the same one that says, he can only excel at math, if thought in a piratical manner. The mechanical gifted brain is an innovative one, a piratical one, one that does not see abstract math, it only sees math as it pertains to real world problem solving. These are the brains that are responsible for all the mechanical inventions we now, come to take for granted. Automobiles, Washing machines etc.

So where does this Carpenter to be finds himself, in a Bermuda that’s adverse to him. This again will depend on a different set of neurological wiring, combined with the immediate environment he grow up in. If he was fortunate enough to be born into a family (single or both parents) which was able to give him love and support, then he may be your average gas station attendant or your average clerical staff that just can’t seem to excel at what he is doing. He never found his niche in life so to speak but at least he is now a productive citizen in society.

So given his particular set of circumstances he will be alright, if even just.
Thanks, to the environment he was raised in, he is OK. He will be OK, even if was born with the Warrior Gene mutation and or a temporal lobe defect that my have predispose him to violence. This violent side was never triggered, thanks to the loving and nurturing environment, he grew up in. Bottom line is, his environment and family support had negate any negative tendencies he may have.

However, if this Carpenter to be was born with the Warrior Gene mutation and or a defect in the Temporal lobe of the brain, born to a parent or set of parents, that was, for whatever reason, unable to give him the love and support which would foster an environment for success. Then you will find this Carpenter to be, possibly, pointing a firearm at the next gun victim to be, then blowing out their brains out and not even think about it the next day. Or he may have been caught and doing time for his murder at a cost of almost $100K per year. Now if we were smart, we could have educated five of them with the same investment.

Moral of the story is, if we don’t educate them all, and I mean all. We will surly be paying for it big time, in years to come. We have already lost a generation since 98. The generation we lost will be filling the ranks of the ones that have been locked up. Why I do I say from 98. This was when we got a new government, one that should have been able to fix the wrongs of the past, which includes the education system. This was a missed opportunity to do the reforms Bermuda needed to take us to the next level.

Instead, it was business as usual, at a time when we needed some radical measures to reform the system. So now we are still praising an education system that has failed our children and continues to fail our children.

C is a Pass?? which century are we in??

If we feel the education system has failed it is because we have allowed it. We are suppose to be paving a way for the future generation just how it was paved for us. But no, all we continue to do is create blockages of negativity and point fingers at politricks and then we wonder y our young people get higher marks in “fairytales”? How long are we to continue sitting in on the ‘magic shows’?

To the youth who aren’t excelling as well as the others…you are not failures and don’t ever let anyone make you feel and think you are. Don’t be afraid to ask and seek for one on one help with your teachers and your peers too. Speak with your teacher after class for that extra help that’s what they are there for. If you are faced with troubles at home or outside of school, don’t let it discourage you or hold you back, I KNOW you have the potential and more importantly you have the resources available in school to boost you through. There’s no difference between you and a private school student, they get bad grades to.

Stay encourage young people….keep strong willed – YOU WILL NEVER FAIL UNTIL YOU STOP TRYING.

We can do better, but the results are not horrible IMO…

This just goes to prove what’s wrong with Bermuda once again:
Terrible education run by ignoramus religious zealots who shun actual reality and science.

Your false god isn’t helping tourists come to Bermuda and it isn’t helping stem the flow of international business leaving Bermuda.

Wake up and smell reality instead of some ancient book designed for mind control and to keep people on their knees and for which offers no answers to life itself.

Religion is the worst thing for humanity and does nothing for us except hold us back and enslave our minds. It does more to separate us than bring us together. It promotes war, hatred and bigotry for those that don’t look and think as it does.

People want a “progressive” Bermuda? Try free thinking for once and stop spouting garbage from an ancient book that incorrectly tried to explain the nature of the universe and everything in it.

oh well………….

BWAA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-Ha!!

You can only sit what you are given the opportunity of sitting.

The tone of the message delivered and the actual results do not match.Let us consider the (independent) external results. Even with just considering the 350 students that sat the exams the results are very poor.

577 external exams taken by 350 = (on average) less than 2 exams per person. This is extrememly poor. Especially when you consider all students should be taking English and Mathematics at a minimum.

Only 168 students took exams in English Language and Literature.62% gained grade C or above. Therefore 29.76% of the 350 students (that did sit external exams)achieved an average to better than average grade in English Language and Literature = NOT GOOD RESULTS

Only 142 students took exams in Mathematics. 70% gained grade C or above. Therefore 28.40% of the 350 students achieved an average to better than average grade in Mathematics = NOT GOOD RESULTS

STOP SELLING OUR CHILDREN SHORT and putting spin on the performance of Bermuda Education.

Don’t believe me?? Watch some of our graduates fill out a job application or present a resume …