As an up-and-coming politician, the Hon. Jerome Dill might have thought twice before accepting the post of Education Minister.

Consider these facts: No Education Minister has gone on to become Premier; No Education Minister has gone on to hold one of the three major Cabinet posts of Finance, Tourism, or Labour and Home Affairs; and Of Bermuda's last four Education Ministers, two never held another Cabinet post, one lost his seat in the House of Assembly and recently left the Senate, and one is now a Government backbencher.

"I'll be perfectly blunt about it,'' Mr. Dill told The Royal Gazette .

"People have said to me that for someone who looked like he had a promising political career, we don't understand why you've taken this thing on.'' But Mr. Dill, a 35-year-old law partner at Appleby, Spurling & Kempe, said he is in politics to make a contribution, not to be "a political survivor''. On top of Education, he holds the contentious Human Affairs post and his colleagues recently elected him Deputy Premier.

Is the Education portfolio, as some would have it, a political death sentence? Former Ministers of Education say no. They agree the job is a sensitive one.

But they say if the list of former Ministers reads like a political graveyard, it is more coincidence than anything else.

"Education around the world is always the hot seat to be in,'' said Dr.

Clarence Terceira, the most recent MP to be vaulted from the Education Ministry to the back bench. Also, "people don't like change''.

"One has to have a spine of steel to be able to continue regardless of people like the Editor of The Royal Gazette .'' In editorials, Royal Gazette Editor Mr. David L. White has been critical of Government's education restructuring plans, particularly the new senior secondary school at Prospect. Dr. Terceira said he believed it was opposition from Mr. White and Bank of Butterfield chairman the Hon. Sir David Gibbons that cost him his Cabinet seat.

Asked if he thought being named Education Minister would derail the political future of Mr. Dill, Dr. Terceira said: "It will depend whether he buckles down and just agrees with your Editor.

"If he wants to be a good boy, he'll do whatever your Editor says.'' But a change in the school reform plan at this stage would be "the biggest tragedy that could ever happen,'' he said.

The Hon. Gerald Simons, Bermuda's longest-serving Education Minister who preceded Dr. Terceira in the Education post from 1986 to 1993, said Education is "a very sensitive portfolio, simply because nothing is more precious to an individual voter than the future of his or her children''.

Mr. Simons noted that in Ontario, there were at least five Education Ministers during his tenure.

"As to the fate of any Minister of Education following his time in that office, much depends on his personal qualities and standing, and of course his relationship with the Premier or Prime Minister and the Premier's goals.

"(Premier the Hon.) Dr. (David) Saul indicated when he was elected Premier that he wished to have a Cabinet of a younger age.'' Mr. Simons lost his seat in Warwick East in the 1993 General Election, after which he was name d to the Senate and returned to Cabinet as Environment Minister. But he was dropped from Cabinet in August after Premier Sir John Swan resigned. Dr. George Thomas, who preceded Mr. Simons as Education Minister from 1984 to 1986, said he found the ministry "interesting'' and felt it was "one of the most important in Government''.

Although he never returned to Cabinet after he resigned the post and has since left politics, "I didn't feel it was any death knell for me,'' Dr. Thomas said.

He sat as a backbencher before losing his seat in the House of Assembly in 1989 because he wanted to devote more time to his medical practice, he said.

"I didn't find it a particularly rough ride.'' Mr. William Cox preceded Dr. Thomas as Minister of Education from 1982 to 1984. Once again, it was the last Cabinet post he held.

"If the theme you're trying to develop is that being Minister of Education is a political gravestone, then I think that's not so,'' he said. "Education here, like anywhere in the world, is a highly contentious matter. My stay in Cabinet was terminated not because of anything to do with the Ministry itself, it's a matter of who gets on with the Premier, and if you don't get on with (former Premier Sir) John Swan, you're out.'' The Hon. Ernest Vesey, who died in 1994, preceded Mr. Cox as Education Minister from 1976 to 1982 and enjoyed a relatively quiet tenure until newly-elected Sir John moved him from Education to Health and Social Services.

He had been out of Cabinet nearly three years when he announced in 1987 that he would resign his Smith's North seat to make way for a younger candidate.

Mrs. Gloria McPhee was Education Minister from 1972 to 1976, the first politician in Bermuda to hold that title.

Before the late Sir Edward Richards asked her to take the post, she held the larger Health and Social Services portfolio for four years. After leaving Education, she served as Planning Minister before resigning from the United Bermuda Party and leaving politics in 1980.

But Mrs. McPhee did not feel the Education portfolio harmed her career. "It didn't at all,'' she said. "I felt it enhanced it.'' She described Education as "a hard taskmaster'' where there was "always a problem''. It demanded her full-time attention, she said.

But Mrs. McPhee felt she survived the portfolio well, despite controversy over a proposal to locate Bermuda College at Admiralty House. "When I realised it would be foolish of me to pursue using Admiralty House, I stopped it,'' because it would be "going against the people's wishes,'' she said.

And it all proved to be for the best, since she was later offered the present Stonington campus site.

Mrs. McPhee felt it was important to do a lot of reading, visit the schools regularly, and "have a philosophy of education that is your own''. And an Education Minister should "not make a move without consulting the BUT (Bermuda Union of Teachers) and meeting with the parents as often as possible,'' she said.

Former UBP chairman Dr. Stanley Ratteray preceded Mrs. McPhee as the Member responsible for Education, as it was then called, from 1970 until 1972, when he resigned from the legislative council to seek a House of Assembly seat in Southampton East, but lost.

Dr. Ratteray, who presided over the contentious amalgamation of schools to spur integration which led to the departure of Saltus Grammar School from the public system, later served as Planning Minister before leaving politics.

"It's one of the most difficult portfolios, because, as you know, almost everybody is an expert on education,'' Dr. Ratteray said. But "it's extremely fulfilling in terms of the total effect it can have on the community''.

"As opposed to being the death knell...it can actually assist a political career in demonstrating the Minister's ability,'' he said.

He did not feel handling Education hurt his career. "I wouldn't want to speak to the reasons why others may have had difficulty with it,'' he said.

"That takes careful analysis of each individual case.'' Preceding Dr. Ratteray as Member for Education was the late Sir Dudley Spurling, from 1968 to 1970. He went on to become Speaker of the House.Sir Dudley Spurling: First Member after 1968Dr. Stanley Ratteray: "Extremely fulfilling''Mrs. Gloria McPhee: "Hard taskmaster''The Hon. Ernest Vesey: Quiet tenureMr. William Cox: "Highly contentious''Dr. George Thomas: "No death knell''The Hon. Gerald Simons: "Very sensitive''The Hon. Clarence Terceira: "Spine of steel''The Hon. Jerome Dill: In the hot seat