The future of our Island is at stake as budget cuts are wrongly targeting the educational needs of our children.This is the view of Government critics who are calling on the Ministry of Education to rethink the job losses of scores of teachers. They say Bermuda’s children are in the firing line of the cost-cutting move to slash up to ten teachers in some primary, middle and senior schools.All teachers on one-year contracts have been told not to return in September 2011 as the Ministry had its budget reduced by ten percent or $12 million. All affected teachers are expatriates or those who are unqualified with the Bermuda Educators Council.Yesterday’s announcement from Minister of Education Dame Jennifer Smith came just a week after 30 paraprofessionals and educational therapists were axed. But critics have raised concerns about students not being a priority saying staffing cuts should have been a last resort.Shadow Education Minister Grant Gibbons called for “a more thorough explanation of thinking” on how the cutbacks would affect schools.The One Bermuda Alliance MP said: “The Education Minister’s statement failed to spell out the impact of the cutbacks and we, therefore, can only ask for clarity on how she sees these cutbacks playing out.“We would have been more receptive to the Minister looking first to trim her Ministry’s bloated bureaucracy before focusing on the classroom, as she has done. The education of Bermuda’s children does not appear to be the priority. Bermuda needs to hear answers … Just saying schools will have to ‘Do more with less’ won’t cut it.”Dr Gibbons added that interest payments on Bermuda’s public debt were costing the government about $170,000 a day that’s $70 million this year.He said: “Teachers losing their jobs, cutbacks in ferry and bus services and decisions to pull our athletes from international competitions are all happening because the Government for years mishandled the public purse.“These were years the Government did not put Bermuda first. The hard reality of our soaring debt is coming home to roost.”UBP MP Charlie Swan, spokesman for education, said slashing teaching posts would have a negative effect on the education of children.He said: “Suffering from years of fiscal irresponsibility plus the economic downturn, we face a double (or even triple) whammy.“We’ve no money and increasing debt, the downturned economy is compounding our problems, and now we are adversely impacting our future productive citizens.“And those most vulnerable will suffer most. Those who rely on our public education system both academic and technical will be the human casualties of education cutbacks, caused by this Governments financial mismanagement.“Our children, our future generations, who will have to pay off the burgeoning debt created by this government, will lack the skills to enable them to effectively pay it. It’s a crying shame.”Former UBP Minister Quinton Edness accused the Ministry of Education of “lacking in common sense.”He said: “This is so fundamentally wrong and they should rethink. I understand Government has to make cuts because there’s a lack of funds brought about by their own mismanagement, but they are doing it incorrectly.“These cuts are going to affect the education and growth of our children, this is not going to go well for our community in the future.“I don’t think they should let go of any staff in education, they should make cuts from everywhere else first.”Mr Edness added that Dame Jennifer had “contradicted herself” as at the launch of the Week of the Young Child she said investing in young children would benefit us all.Mike Charles, general secretary of the Bermuda Union of Teachers, said: “This is not something we are happy about, it gives us no kind of comfort.“These teachers are working hard and doing a great job in our schools. Job losses are not the way forward.“We fear students could suffer but we hope not, after all schools are meant to be all about building the success of our children.”Mr Charles said teachers had not received automatic extensions to their one-year contracts, which is usually expected but not guaranteed.He does not know how many teachers have been affected, but he expects they will already be looking for other jobs.Mr Charles added: “We will be keeping a close eye on this and monitoring the situation.“We wait to see what happens in September when schools go back. It’s only then that HR will have a better idea of staffing levels and who needs to be recalled.”Education permanent secretary Warren Jones said yesterday that news stories were “alarmist and totally in contradiction” to their commitment to put teaching and learning first.In a statement released on his behalf, Mr Jones said: “In accordance with the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Department of Education and the Bermuda Union of Teachers, all persons whose employment status will change in the next school year must have been notified by June 1st.“This was done and there have been no further cuts since that date.“As previously stated, persons affected included paraeducators on one year contracts and persons who are unqualified and unregistered with the Bermuda Educators Council.“To be clear, persons who do not meet the legal requirements to be in our classrooms and who do not have an exemption are being released. I would expect everyone to agree that those who teach our children must be qualified.”Tina Outerbridge, co-chairwoman of the BEC, said the council was working to increase the professionalism and standards of education but was not involved in the hiring of teachers.She said there were about 1,350 legally registered teachers in Bermuda.The 2002 legislation states that educators have to have their degree education verified and complete 30 hours of professional development a year to get a teaching licence.The Association of School Principals did not respond to our requests for comment.