Mr. Speaker, I rise today to provide this house and the listening public with an update on the topic of school readiness for the school year that just commenced. I want to take this time to remind honourable colleagues of the critical importance of Education and the Reform agenda to the overall success of our country. The desire to consistently make comments that are not factual or spoken out of context to achieve political ends is neither helpful nor warranted when it comes to public education reform.
As you know, Mr Speaker, despite comments purposely disseminated to create discord by Opposition members and others, all 34 public schools opened for students on Monday, September 11. Lost in the public discourse on that day was the fact that we have opened two Parish Schools, have students commencing their second year of signature learning programmes, and education reform is moving on.
This is not to say there have not been some challenges, Mr Speaker. There were challenges in the face of an increased workload over the summer break, resource constraints and some lapses in coordination between the various partners that worked on readying the facilities for our staff and students.
Mr. Speaker, I thank all of the educators, education officers, ERU staff, support staff, maintenance crews and our colleagues from Public Works for their dedication and hard work to prepare schools for our students. I also acknowledge the teachers union's recent concerns and the importance of addressing them.
Mr Speaker, Today, I would like to provide some context so that we all have a bit more objective information and perspective on the school readiness issues.
Mr. Speaker, every year, the Department of Education's Facilities section works with contractors from the private sector and Public Works. They provide routine maintenance for all of our schools and other physical facilities. In addition, the IT department undertakes a number of maintenance and upgrade projects. At the same time, our building custodians are tasked with ensuring the cleanliness of the facilities before they are occupied at the start of the academic year. These maintenance works occur during the summer months, which I remind colleagues, are July and most of August.
Mr Speaker, This past summer, our Summer Works projects included approximately 1,250 tasks or projects in our schools and facilities and special works for the two Parish Schools requested by the School Transformation Teams. In addition, work had to be done on the decommissioned sites of Clearwater Middle School and Heron Bay Primary. Mr. Speaker, our Facilities Section consists of one Facilities Manager, a Head of Custodians and an administrative assistant. We are grateful to Public Works and subcontractors who completed much of the work.
Mr. Speaker, I will be the first to admit that we did not get a perfect score for school readiness. There were some challenges, as expected, with such a mammoth project at a time of significant change and resource constraints in the face of an increased workload.
Mr Speaker, I am under no illusions as to the nature of the Opposition and their supporters' comments that attempt to paint a picture of dysfunction and that no schools were ready for September 11. However, I can say that broad, sweeping generalisations about school readiness this year are unjustified. In addition to conducting surveys of schools about their readiness for this school year, the Commissioner of Education is reaching out to the Bermuda Union of Teachers to obtain specifics of their concerns so that they may be appropriately assessed and dealt with.
Mr Speaker, the Department and the BUT had a difference of opinion concerning Purvis Primary regarding whether classrooms were ready to receive students at the start of term. Those concerns were discussed in the spirit of collaboration, resulting in an agreement to give the teachers additional time to customise their classrooms. Teachers at Francis Patton Primary took a different approach to similar concerns caused by a delay in the works' timeline. It should be noted that the situation at Purvis Primary - where summer work delays impacted teacher preparation schedules - was exacerbated by a power supply outage initiated by BELCO, which resulted in Purvis Primary being without power during one of the four days used for final prep before school was to open on September 11.
Mr. Speaker, due to the agreement between the BUT and the DOE, Purvis Primary students engaged in experiential learning during the first week of the new school year. In what can only be described as bizarre, The Opposition has already derided the concept of experiential learning as something inferior.
Mr Speaker, Experiential learning is connected to the Bermuda History and Social Studies Curriculum. And as we transform education, we are moving more toward experiential and personalised learning, where we meet students where they are and build on that. Yet, the Shadow Education Minister has indicated that he believes that Experiential Learning is somehow inferior. I can only conclude that the many times I have reached out to the Opposition to engage in Education Reform updates and have not received a response as the reason why such thoughts are held. Yet another sad indictment of the Opposition's true understanding of Education Reform
Mr Speaker, In short, while not initially planned for, the solution was agreed to by the BUT, prior to Purvis Primary opening on September 11. As a reminder, this allowed teachers time to personalise their classrooms. The learning experiences our students engaged in during the first week of school were aligned with our approach to improving education.
Mr Speaker, Concerns have been expressed about safety matters. Our children are entitled to safe environments conducive to learning. In response to safety and health concerns expressed by Purvis Primary teachers, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Environmental Health, conducted a safety inspection at the school on September 8. That inspection took place as work was continuing in the school. Any matters identified were addressed on September 9th and 10th.
Mr. Speaker, even as we embark on reform of public education, the Department has been committed to continuous improvement. At the start of this school year, 35 school and site leaders, including the Child Development Programme facility, were asked to evaluate the state of readiness of their sites for the new school year as of September 11, 2023. This system-wide survey yielded the following results:
- 27 of the 34 Leaders indicated that they were either neutral, satisfied or very satisfied overall with the work done at their sites over the summer. Five were in the neutral category (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied), Fourteen were satisfied, and another seven reported being very satisfied with the summer work done at their sites.
Five of the 34 school leaders were dissatisfied with the work done over the summer, and three indicated that no work was done at their site. Aided schools such as Whitney Institute and St. George's Preparatory do their own maintenance.
- Drilling down to classrooms, 29 of the 34 school leaders rated their school site's readiness in terms of classrooms as either excellent, more than satisfactory or satisfactory. Another five indicated that there was more work to be done as of September 11. The average rating across the system on a five-point scale was 3.5.
- In terms of non-classroom spaces, 29 of the 34 school leaders rated their school site's readiness in terms of non-classroom spaces as either excellent, more than satisfactory or satisfactory. Here again, another five indicated that there was more work to be done as of September 11. The average rating across the schools on a five-point scale was 3.5 for this category.
Mr. Speaker, those are the headlines regarding school readiness at the start of the new school year. Work on resolving some outstanding issues was ongoing throughout the first week, although some delays were encountered due to the weather. Some of the issues involve air quality, the provision of air conditioners, playground facilities and technology.
The Department is analysing the data and, in collaboration with school leaders, facilities, and our partners at Public Works, will address process and coordination improvements from now on, as well as those issues which have been identified as outstanding for some time. In the future, the evaluation survey will take place a few days before teachers are due in schools to prepare their classrooms.
Mr. Speaker, in addition to the maintenance works, the technological infrastructure is also serviced and upgraded annually. As some of the issues identified as outstanding were IT-related, I would like to provide a brief overview of the type of work done by the IT department and some challenges and issues.
In brief, Mr. Speaker, the IT section is responsible for maintaining, operating and upgrading the public school system's IT infrastructure, including servicing and upgrading laptops and other devices issued to staff and students.
Daily, IT supports 1,804 student devices and 3,364 staff devices (laptops, desktops and phones) and handles security and issues with user accounts, including PowerSchool accounts. Discharging these responsibilities is a team of ten full-time staff.
Mr Speaker, The onsite (local to every school) IT Section work/tasks cannot start until the school custodians have completed their work, which in turn is impacted by the maintenance, repair and or construction schedules. Compounding the challenge for IT is that all department-issued laptops need major updating to sync with updated and new IT Security tools and Operating System patching. All CORE and many other teachers and officers in the Department have been issued laptops.
Mr. Speaker, This summer, all laptops required significant updates, and IT must have possession of them to do the revisions and updating. However, I am made to understand that; unfortunately, most BPSS Primary School Department of Education laptops had not been left in the school offices despite numerous requests to do so. This then resulted in these required updates being done during the first week of school, a process that would have left teachers without their devices for periods of time. The only school to comply entirely with IT's request was Prospect Primary. Similarly, requests to enrol in security protocols such as the Password Portal met with less than 50% compliance by the staff. This has an adverse effect on device connectivity.
Finally, Mr. Speaker, construction delays and lighting strikes at some Primary Schools have delayed all low-voltage data cabling tasks, delaying updating some locations with working connections. BPSS Schools impacted most were St. George's Preparatory, Francis Patton, Harrington Sound, Paget Primary, and Purvis Primary.
Mr. Speaker, despite our best efforts, in addition to the aforementioned IT works, some outstanding works are still underway. As a result of a wood shortage this summer, purpose-built cabinets and storage at Francis Patton Primary and Purvis Primary are still being worked on. Additionally, there are other minor works still outstanding. These works are understood and look to be resolved in due course.
Mr Speaker, resolving all of these issues would involve better communication, collaboration and coordination, whether it is with our partners, staff, families or the Bermuda Union of Teachers. These are issues that The Department of Education will work collaboratively with stakeholders to ensure the same issues do not arise next year.
Mr Speaker, The Ministry will monitor and assist the Department of Education as much as possible as they look to put better processes and procedures in place. We are committed to supporting these efforts while staying the course of education reform. As we will shortly embark on onboarding School Transformation Teams for the creation of the Parish Primary Schools for Elliot Primary and Harrington Sound Primary, as well as the 3rd Signature School at Sandys Secondary Middle School, I invite the general public to join us in going all in for all our students. Feel free to submit your names to become part of the team that will continue to design and drive the Education Reform Agenda forward.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.