Government is building "a black mega-school which will play a deadly role in the total polarisation of the races,'' a former Education Minister has charged.

In a Letter to the Editor of The Royal Gazette , Mrs. Gloria McPhee said the opening of the senior secondary school at Prospect will also sound the death knell for the Berkeley Institute.

"The time has come for Cabinet to admit to the error of constructing this mega-school,'' said Mrs. McPhee, who was Bermuda's Minister of Education from 1972 to 1976 and was made an OBE in the Queen's recent New Year's Honours.

"It is said that only a stubborn person will not change direction when caught in the currents of a bad decision that needs courage to reverse. I hope that this would not be said of the Premier.'' Mrs. McPhee, who was Bermuda's first woman Cabinet Minister, resigned from the United Bermuda Party and retired from politics in 1980. She was first elected an MP in 1968 and also served as Minister of Health and Social Services.

A Government contractor recently broke ground on Prospect. Mrs. McPhee described plans for the 250,000-square-foot senior secondary school, which is to initially house 850 students and later 1,250, as a "demon scheme.'' Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira, who was sent a copy of Mrs.

McPhee's five-page letter yesterday, said he would release a detailed reply today.

But he denied that Prospect was modelled on a "mega school in Frederickton, Ontario,'' which had "failed,'' as Mrs. McPhee said in her letter. Government looked at a large secondary school in Fredericton, New Brunswick, when planning Prospect, but it was not used as a model, he said.

Under the Government's restructured school system, Prospect, due to open in 1997, is to become one of two senior secondary schools, along with Berkeley.

Students are to attend one of five new "middle schools'' between the primary and senior secondary levels.

Mrs. McPhee said Prospect was "ill-conceived,'' and ill-suited to Bermuda for educational, racial, sociological, and financial reasons.

Experience has shown that disruption from gangs, crimes, and drugs make it "extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, for the attentive student to learn,'' in mega-schools. Metal detectors and extra security have not helped, she said.

"I submit that not one Cabinet Minister, if he or she had teenagers, would send them to this school,'' she said. "It is `not good enough for them', therefore it is not good enough or suitable for the black Bermudian.'' Mrs. McPhee said amalgamation of primary schools had led to racial mixing at that level and "a major step forward in race relations.'' But the mega-school, which she said would be attended by low-income blacks, would "play a deadly role in the total polarisation of the races.

"I contend that if the Island had three excellent schools, some whites -- not all -- would send their teenagers there.'' The school would also worsen divisions among blacks, because higher-income blacks who could afford to do so would send their children to private schools.

"Another natural outcome of this demon scheme is the elimination of the presence of the Berkeley Institute,'' Mrs. McPhee said. "This must follow.'' She predicted funds would one day be insufficient to support both Prospect and Berkeley and "a major contribution to the culture of black people will hit the dust.'' Mrs. McPhee said that in addition to the $40 million or more it will cost to construct, Prospect will bring "exorbitant'' expenses for high-tech equipment, supplies, maintenance, and replacements due to vandalism.

"Bermudians are already in debt for the millions spent for the incinerator and the prison,'' she said.

And she noted that since the plans were made, Government had learned of the pending turnover of the "well-constructed'' Roger B. Chaffee School from the US Navy.

She questioned why Cabinet was persisting with the Prospect school plan. "It cannot be for votes. Could it be to perpetuate a class structure in the black community? Could it be a vendetta? I wish someone could supply the answer.'' Mrs. Gloria McPhee, OBE