efforts to increase the budgets of Government schools, The Royal Gazette has learned.

Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira said yesterday that Government will boost the schools' budgets by an average of ten percent over the next three years.

He said the money would be allocated to the schools in next year's Budget. He said the ten percent took into account recessionary budget cuts as well as the schools' current needs.

Dr. Terceira, who returned last week from a more than one-month long holiday, said the agreement was reached at a "positive'' meeting last Thursday with the NPTA.

NPTA vice president Mr. Ross Smith called the funding increase "a good starting point''.

He said the group was also successful in getting direction from Education officials at the meeting on how to go about obtaining a breakdown of Government's financial obligations to the public schools.

"We want to know what responsibilities lie with the (Education) Department,'' he said.

Judging by the attendance at the meeting of officials from 15 different PTAs, Mr. Smith said inadequate funding was a major concern of public schools.

"They (PTAs) are being called on more frequently to assist in things the principals see as needs, wants and wishes,'' he said.

The inadequacy of the schools' budgets showed in one Government primary school's decision this month to launch a $20,000 fundraising drive.

Purvis Primary said it needed the money for "educational supplies and equipment for various areas'' including the library.

A NPTA member noted the libraries of a number of public schools, including Warwick Secondary's, were in poor condition.

"We only have about 50 books we can actually use,'' Warwick Sec PTA head Mrs.

Patty Ann Flood confirmed last week. "We don't even have a complete encyclopaedia set. And some books were so old they just fell apart.'' Mr. Smith said the NPTA still had a number of other concerns, including school maintenance issues and the case of displaced Bermudian principal Mr. Warren Jones.

A meeting is scheduled for tonight to update members on the funding increases promised and to elect new officers, he said.