This article critically analyses national development, a false narrative for the establishment of national literacy, a national math strategy, and national identity plans for student success. The danger and power of false narratives of national development are analysed, especially when subscribed to by formal colonial educational institutions like Bermuda College and the Bermuda Public Education System. The paper characterises the strategies and initiatives that belie island-wide student success. The use of concepts such as national focus, national literacy, national reform, etc. by colonised educational institutions to achieve student success resonates with Vygotsky's sociocultural theory regarding the interaction between developing educational institutions and people within the culture in which they live.