Labour Minister Terry Lister last night took the only avenue remaining when he referred the pay dispute between the Ministry of Education and the teachers to binding arbitration.

It is obvious that the two sides are incapable of negotiating an agreement themselves. What is not clear is what the Bermuda Union of Teachers felt it accomplished with its strike yesterday, especially when it had agreed not to hold any further work stoppages.

There are many in the community who have sympathy for the teachers, the best of whom work long hours, often in fairly poor conditions, and rarely get the recognition that they deserve. It is also recognised that teachers today are often forced to do more than their fair share of child-minding instead of teaching.

On top of that, they have to deal with sometimes absurd directives from Department of Education officials who have been out of the classroom for too long and fail to recognise the day to day challenges that today's teachers face, often without the support of parents or the threat of discipline with which they could once back up their words.

Having said that, the union should again question if this is the best time to demand a pay increase that is well above the rate of inflation. As has been stated before, Bermuda's economy, and therefore its tax base, remains weak, and that means that any significant raise for teachers will have to come from either reduced expenditure elsewhere, increased taxes or both.

The teachers may well have a case, even if the claims that they are underpaid compared to other civil servants will be greeted with crocodile tears in much of the hard-pressed private sector. But this is not the year to make strong demands, something the more observant members of the profession must recognise.

But that does not mean that the teachers' overall situation should not be examined closely, as should the progress of the restructured school system. An independent commission which could look into all the issues surrounding education and could determine how the Ministry and the schools are managing restructuring should be welcomed by all sides.

In the meantime, it is to be hoped that the Island's school children will not be deprived of any more of the education they so desperately need.