Former Education Minister Milton Scott admitted yesterday that he had bought his two young Godchildren the controversial Harry Potter books - which were last week banned by a Government school.

During the Senate debate, Senator Scott said during his three years at the helm of the Education Ministry he set out to make school principals and classrooms more autonomous, meaning they would sometimes make their own decisions about school policy.

And he admitted that sometimes people would perceive those decisions to be wrong - as the one taken by principal of CedarBridge Academy Kalmar Richards last week in which she banned the Harry Potter books from her classrooms because of claims by some parents that they enticed witchcraft and Satanism.

She said that she believed the books, about a child wizard, could be "detrimental to the minds of minors".

But he said schools and teachers had been told to take authority for their classrooms and that was beginning to happen.

He added: "There will be mistakes made.

"Some people might think there was a mistake made the other day - a public school took a decision."

And when pushed on the issue later, while refusing to comment on the removal of the books from CedarBridge Academy's reading list, he admitted that he saw nothing wrong with the Harry Potter series.

He said: "Some considered it to be (a mistake) and there will be other choices that we will face in the future.

"I haven't read the books, but I bought a Harry Potter book, I can't remember which one, for my two Godchildren, who are about nine and ten, a year and a half or two years ago.

"I gave it to them."

And asked if he was planning to see the new Harry Potter at the cinema, Sen Scott said he was soon to go on holiday to Atlanta and hoped to watch it there.

Principal Mrs. Richards was asked by The Royal Gazette last night if she had been surprised by the furore surrounding her decision to ban the books, which are a favourite among young children around the world.

She said: "At this point, I'm not going to make a comment. I will have to link with my Board of Governors before I make any comment.

"The question is whether I will respond at all, but that question will be answered by the board."