requires, the Education Minister said yesterday.

But the Hon. Clarence Terceira did not have a figure on how many Bermuda secondary students went on to higher education.

Dr. Terceira said he was "pleased'' by a Ministry survey that showed that of 843 students who were eligible to leave school at the end of the 1992/93 academic year, 775 continued on.

But of the survey respondents who carried on in school, 425, more than half, returned to secondary school to complete their final non-compulsory year.

Another 188 entered Bermuda College, and Dr. Terceira said not all of those would be enrolled in programmes he would consider higher education.

The Education Minister said he would like to know how many Bermuda secondary school students went on to college and university, but "that's a statistic that's missing.'' It was not known how many of those who went back for the final year of secondary school went on to post-secondary education. And of those who entered Bermuda College, only those enrolled in a two-year associate degree programme should be counted among those receiving higher education, he said.

That degree allowed acceptance into the third year of university programmes in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, he said.

He agreed that when Bermuda compared its own figure of 91 percent of students going on to "further education'' with statistics from other countries, it might be comparing apples and oranges.

Each year, students were surveyed about their intentions for the upcoming academic year, Dr. Terceira said. But the figures released yesterday came from a follow-up study which showed what the students were actually doing. The response from 843 students who were above compulsory school age represented a response rate of 88 percent, he said.

As well as the 425 who remained in secondary school and the 188 who entered Bermuda College, 53 went to other further education in Bermuda, 109 went abroad for further education, 56 went to jobs, and 12 were still at home when the survey was conducted.

Senior Education Officer Dr. Joseph Christopher said each student was tracked while in the Bermuda school system and Immigration cards were used to survey how many were abroad for studies at any given time. But the two figures were not linked, he said.

Unless the way of gathering information was changed, only "a rough estimate'' could be given of what percentage of Bermudian students who entered secondary school later went on to post-secondary education.

"We publish the information as to those who continue beyond compulsory school age,'' Dr. Christopher said. "It is very high in Bermuda.'' TERCEIRA: `Pleased'.