The United Bermuda Party has called on Government to stop courting "hollywood glitz" and focus on education in the wake of a recent report on young black males.

And its Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons has called on a school for boys to be implemented in order to meet their needs, as well as increasing the educational grants Government offers to adult education programmes.

Kim Swan, who is the UBP's interim head ahead of tonight's leadership contest, said the report should make the Government "hang its head in shame".

On Monday, Columbia professor Ronald Mincy released 'On the Wall or on the Margins? A study of employment, earnings and educational attainment gaps between young black males and their same-age peers' stating: "Once on site in Bermuda, we learnt that more than 50 percent of black males leave the public high schools prior to completion."

The study also revealed that black Bermudian males have higher unemployment rates, lower earnings, and lower employment rates in high-paying industries than white Bermudian males.

Said Mr. Swan: "As a politician who wants this country to help our people live a better life, I am deeply upset by the lack of progress reflected in the findings of this report.

"This is a major disappointment. It says the Progressive Labour Party has had virtually no meaningful impact on a vitally important segment of the population it had promised to help. Education has been given the full treatment by PLP leadership — eight ministers in ten years and yet they have failed to make any headway.

"When I went to Berkeley, there was a saying I always remember: 'Use your education to seize your liberation'. Clearly not enough black males are being liberated by this education system."

He continued: "We're not sure they even care. We've had more focus on Hollywood glitz and pop culture than on the fundamental work necessary to help our young move forward. This is a political betrayal."

And Dr. Gibbons said: "In light of this appalling but not surprising finding, it is appropriate and timely for Bermuda to seriously consider an all-male school. It is time to get more aggressive.

"This week's black male study should not come as a surprise to anybody, including the Government. Even though the Hopkins Report highlighted the desperate state of public education and Premier [Ewart] Brown stated that "education is in crisis" more than two-and-a-half years ago, Government reform has bogged down in bureaucracy and frequent changes of leadership at the Ministry.

"It is shameful — a shameful abandonment of their elected responsibility. To hear the Premier tell the public about his Government's "commitment" to do something about the situation sounds depressingly hollow and, unfortunately, familiar. How can they be committed to reform when there has been no consistent leadership or continuity?

"The reality is that education reform — arguably the most critical project affecting Bermuda's future — is moving way too slowly. This lack of real progress has major implications for our society and this week's black male study simply highlights the problem.

He said the UBP was not calling for a new building but a new institution from what the Island already has.

The single-sex school would cater specifically, but not exclusively, to young Bermudian males who are most at risk of dropping out of the existing public system.

And he added Government should reverse its decision to cut funding to adult and alternative programmes, citing the decision to cut the Adult Education School's budget by two-thirds in 2006 despite increasing drop out figures from public schools as a mistake.

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