HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC — Defiant campaigners say the fight will go on to stave off the closure of West End Primary School, which is scheduled for shutdown as part of a government shake-up of Bermuda’s education system.
Demonstrators organized a motorcade of more than 50 vehicles that traveled across the island last Saturday to highlight their concerns.
Organizers later claimed it illustrated their island-wide support to block the school’s closure in Somerset, a village in Sandys parish. It is one of eight primary schools selected for closure as part of the government’s education reform initiative.
Under the changes, each of the island’s nine parishes will be served by just a single “community hub” school, except Pembroke, the most populous, which will have two – Victor Scott and West Pembroke Primary School.
But protesters claim that administrators charged with deciding where the axe should fall placed too much weight on practical criteria – such as building size, accessibility, and even plumbing – while ignoring the historical legacy that the 154-year-old West End Primary School has earned in the education of the black community during segregation.
One of the organizers of the motorcade, Ellen-Kate Horton, a former teacher who later became Permanent Secretary of Education, said the event had strengthened the group’s resolve to fight the closure.
Horton challenged Premier David Burt to keep an earlier pledge that there would be further dialogue.
“We haven’t heard any response from the government yet,” she said.
But in response, the Ministry of Education said, “West End is a respected school where black people received their education because they could not attend Somerset Primary.
“For a generation that lived the experience, there are painful memories of segregation and being refused to attend a school based on skin color and racism. For this generation and the next, we must do the hard work and make these sacrifices to improve public education.
“We cannot erase the past, but we can create a new vision and opportunity for all of Bermuda’s children based on equality and accessibility, not race.
“We are committed to advancing education reform with the unprecedented consultative process that has guided us to date. The Premier and minister (Diallo Rabain) have committed to meeting with the group, and that meeting is currently being planned,” the minister said.
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