year 2002, Education Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons announced yesterday.

At a press conference, attended by the Premier, education officials and other Government Ministers, Mr. Simons revealed a new schedule and plans for education reforms.

The new timetable represents a seven-year delay in implementing the most radical changes planned for the education system since the integration of schools in the 1960s.

Up until last year, Government planned to have five four-year middle schools in place by September, 1993, and two three-year senior secondary schools by September, 1995.

This would have required the conversion of Sandys Secondary, Warwick Secondary, Whitney Institute, St. George's Secondary, and the Bermuda College's old technical building at Robert's Avenue into middle schools.

Berkeley Institute would have become a senior secondary school in 1995 and the construction of a senior secondary school at the old Devonshire Academy site would have been completed at the same time.

Students with special needs were also to be integrated into regular schools during that period.

But Mr. Simons said it was realised late last year that such a proposal would have caused an enormous demand for extra space at the middle level and it required "extensive additions and renovations'' at the designated middle schools.

"So extensive were these renovations and additions that it was anticipated that Sandys Secondary and Warwick Secondary schools would have to be closed for up to two years each to allow the construction to take place,'' he said.

Recognising that the restructuring project needed to be co-ordinated from a construction, financial, and educational perspective, Mr. Simons said his Ministry's implementation team -- which will remain in place until reforms are completed -- was asked to look at ways to simplify the introduction of middle schools.

Among the team's recommendations, accepted by Government, were: Having three-year middle schools and four-year senior secondary schools; Phasing in the new system between 1996 and 2002; and Converting Northlands Secondary to a primary school and changing Dellwood Primary to a middle school in 1997.

"The use of smaller middle schools enables our existing secondary schools to accommodate their projected enrolment without massive additions,'' Mr. Simons said.

A middle school at the college's old technical building would have been required to accommodate 600 students from central parishes.

But, he said, by using three-year middle schools and allocating Prospect Primary students to Whitney Middle School, Dellwood will only have an enrolment of 350 students.

Noting that the "key to the success of the restructured system'' and the driving force behind the new schedule was the construction of the senior secondary school at Prospect, Mr. Simons said the school will be completed by early 1997.

Improvements to Berkeley's property were also necessary, he said, to provide a senior secondary school programme there by 1999.

A total of $106 million dollars will be allocated for construction projects at Prospect and the designated middle schools, Mr. Simons added.

"I can understand for some members of the public the new system will not come soon enough,'' he said. "Quite frankly, I wish that I could wave a magic wand and put a restructured system in place immediately.

"However, I am very conscious of the concerns of parents for how these plans will affect their children.

"I have repeatedly made the commitment to do my best to ensure that no child currently in the system will be compromised during the transition.

"Therefore, we have gone about the restructuring in a methodical, measured and careful manner.'' Mr. Simons said despite the changes, Government remained committed to completing the college's Stonington campus and ensuring that existing secondary schools all offered comparable programmes for students due to enter them this September.

SCHOOL REFORM SCHEDULE The following is a summary of Government's new school restructuring schedule.

1996: Middle school instruction will begin for Primary Seven students.

1997: The new senior secondary school at Prospect is scheduled to open.

Northlands' third, fourth and fifth year students will transfer to it with other third, fourth, and fifth year secondary students.

Dellwood Primary will become a middle school and Northlands Secondary will become a primary school. The children at both schools at that time will switch locations.

1997-9: Berkeley Institute will be renovated into a senior secondary school and existing secondary schools will be converted into middle schools.

1999: Berkeley opens as a senior secondary school. All middle school facilities will be completed.

How it affects you A child currently in Primary 1, 2, or 3 will have six years of primary education, three years of middle education, and four years at the senior level. A young student at Southampton Glebe will have six years of primary education, three years of middle level education at Sandys, followed by four years of senior secondary school education at Berkeley or Prospect.

Children now in Primary five, six or seven who enter existing secondary schools, except Berkeley, over the next four years will transfer to the senior secondary school at Prospect when it opens and complete the current secondary school programme.

Students who, over the next four years, enter Berkeley will complete their secondary education there.