the Education Ministry has been broken with a three percent pay deal.

Opposition Senate leader and Bermuda Union of Teachers' general secretary Milton Scott yesterday revealed the terms of what he called a "positive'' agreement.

And Deputy premier and Education Minister Jerome Dill also expressed pleasure that the matter was finally put to rest to allow both sides to get on with the business of educating Bermuda's youth.

Under the new deal, salaries will be increased by three percent and honoraria -- the fee for participating in extra-curricular activities -- will also be increased by three percent. The Government had wanted to reduce the amount of honoraria.

The amount of leave for union business was increased from 21 to 25 days and teachers will have two days in September, prior to the students' arrival, to prepare their classrooms and attend meetings or workshops arranged by the principals of the respective schools.

And teachers will be allowed three days of personal leave during the month of September, prior to the arrival of students, to accompany his/her child to school abroad.

The two-year deal -- backdated to September last year -- also agrees that paraprofessionals employed in 1996 will be confirmed in established posts and paraprofessionals in preschools will be provided assistance in upgrading their skills to that of a teacher.

The teachers have been working without a contract since August 31 last year.

Talks, which had been taking place off and on since then, broke down in January after officials from the Education Ministry rejected the union's final proposal.

Despite calling the deal was a positive one, Sen. Scott yesterday admitted that the union did not get everything they wanted.

But he conceded that the union got more than they would have got from the Government if they did not go to arbitration.

"We could not get the Government to settle beyond 2.5 percent on salaries,'' he said. "And they would not give us any more days for union leave.'' But the Education Minister said that the gap between the two sides' salary proposal was not "a lot''.

Sen. Scott also said that the Government had wanted to decreased the amount of honoraria by 10 percent.

The start-up time for teachers and the issue of paraprofessionals were also areas of contention prior to arbitration.

"There are about 30 paraprofessionals involved and they were told in 1996 that they would become full time,'' he explained.

During arbitration, he added, it was decided that they should be confirmed in established posts.

Mr. Dill admitted that the settlement would be more expensive for Government, but he said they were prepared to accept the arbitration terms.

"This represents an opportunity to allow both sides to get on with the business of educating our young people.'' UNIONS UNS