build a university for youngsters so they can go on to secure the top jobs in Bermuda.

His suggestion brought a round of applause from the nearly 1,000 teachers, parents and youngsters attending the Bermuda National Educational Conference at the Southampton Princess Hotel on Saturday.

Why settle for a college, he asked. "Can't Bermuda afford to build a university and fly in professors? "It appears to me you don't educate those born here to go on to the top jobs in your industry.'' Cosby, who holds a Ph.d. in education and has written four books on parenting, urged educators not to have "a back of town'' mentality in designing and teaching school curriculums.

Math must be included and taught not as a punishment, but as a subject needed throughout life for problem solving, he said.

"It's how you lay things out for children,'' he said. High school students should also be fully prepared to pursue higher education. He urged parents to "keep the pressure on'' their children. "But that does not mean whipping them or making fun of them,'' he said.

The conference was attended by Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan and a number of Opposition and Government politicians.

Although Cosby's keynote address touched on a number of serious social issues, and his candour left some squirming in their chairs, he had the audience in stitches with his comic routines and got a standing ovation.

The TV star and comedian said he had only been on the Island a day, therefore he did not intend to tell Bermudians how to cure all their social ills.

"I can't fix anything in the United States -- so don't expect me to fix another place where everything looks fine anyway,'' he said.

However, it was clear Cosby had not missed much.

He joked about members of his welcoming party pointing out cable laying projects on the way to the hotel and how two roosters "attacked'' the car. He even poked fun at prison officers' anger over being drug searched, a report of which he had seen on the local television news.

"Common sense'' told him that if drugs were getting in, either the prisoners were getting out to get them, or the prison officers were bringing them in.

Cosby asked the audience why there were no drug dealers, prostitutes and violent crimes in his hotel's South Shore neighbourhood.

"Why are their dealers in certain neighbourhoods only, like the Back of Town'' he asked.

"You're letting it happen!,'' he said. "And you are satisfied to let it happen!'' Cosby scolded the 22-mile Island for allowing itself "to copy a country with 200 million people''.

He urged Bermuda to "straighten out its politicians'' and "go in and clean up the back of town''.

The Island, as a tourist destination, needed to look after its own people as well visitors before it suffered the same fate as Miami, he warned.

"Miami didn't look after its indigenous problems,'' he said. It allowed people who lived there to be shot and killed. Then when two tourists were shot, all of a sudden people stopped coming to Miami. Then the police and the mayor and the president came out. Why? Because the dollar was threatened.''