[Column written by Minister of Education Diallo Rabain]
Part 2 – Independent, But Accountable: What Autonomy Really Means
One of the questions being asked about the Education Authority is straightforward:
If the Minister retains certain responsibilities, can the Authority truly be autonomous?
The answer is a resounding Yes. The answer lies in understanding what autonomy means.
The Education Authority is not being created to sit outside Government, Parliament or public accountability. It will remain a public body, funded with public money and accountable for its performance.
What changes is who governs and operates the public education system.
The Authority will have its own Board, responsible for its governance and the general management of its affairs. The purpose is to put greater distance between the day-to-day operation of our schools and the politics of the day.
Autonomy does not mean the absence of Government. It means clarity about where Government’s role ends and the Authority’s role begins. We already understand this in Bermuda.
The Bermuda Monetary Authority provides a useful comparison.
Few would suggest that the Minister of Finance personally regulates Bermuda’s banks or makes the BMA’s day-to-day regulatory decisions.
Yet the Minister has significant responsibilities under the Bermuda Monetary Authority Act 1969.
The Minister appoints members of the BMA Board and its Chairman, can give the Authority general written directions in the public interest after consultation, approves its expenditure budget and can make regulations after consulting the Authority. At the same time, the law places responsibility for managing the BMA’s affairs and business, and determining its policy objectives and strategy, with the BMA Board.
That is an important distinction.
Ministerial accountability and operational independence can, and do, exist together.
The Education Authority is built on the same broad principle, even though its functions and legislation are different.
What about the Minister’s powers?
The Minister will not disappear from education, nor should the Minister disappear.
An elected Government remains democratically accountable for education policy, legislation and the expenditure of public funds.
But that is very different from the Minister running the public school system.
Under the Education Authority legislation, the Board governs the Authority. The legislation allows the Minister to give directions of a general character following consultation with the Board. It also allows the Board to seek ministerial advice, but importantly, the Board may act differently from the advice it receives.
That is not day-to-day ministerial control.
It is a deliberate separation between democratic accountability and professional operation.
And the current Commissioner of Education?
The requirement for the Authority to consult the Commissioner of Education in certain circumstances has also raised questions.
But consultation is not control.
During the transition, the existing Education Act 1996 and the new Education Authority legislation must operate alongside one another. Requiring consultation where their respective functions intersect is sensible. It does not, in itself, give the Commissioner a veto over the Authority.
I will deal more fully with that transition in a later article.
The real question
The test of autonomy should not be whether the Minister has any statutory role.
The Bermuda Monetary Authority demonstrates why that would be the wrong test. Its legislation gives the Minister significant statutory responsibilities, while its Board manages the Authority’s affairs and business.
The better question is:
Who is responsible for governing and operating the institution?
For public education, we are deliberately moving that responsibility towards a professionally governed Education Authority and away from the day-to-day political management of our schools.
Government will remain accountable.
Parliament will retain oversight.
But the operation of our public education system should not depend on who happens to occupy the Minister’s chair.
That is the balance we are seeking: professional independence with public accountability.
And Bermuda already understands that distinction.
- Minister of Education Diallo Rabain
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