Parents of students at CedarBridge Academy have urged Government to resolve the issue of overcrowding at the public secondary schools with urgency - and said no pupils should be forced to leave the campus for lessons.

Chairman of the school's Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) Terry Flood said parents believed it was far too late for the Ministry of Education and Development to be deciding how to deal with the imminent overflow, which is set to arrive in September.

He said the Ministry had known for a number of years that the two public secondary schools would have additional pupils from later this year, due to the creation of a senior 4 year.

That means no students will graduate from the public system this year, but instead be held back for an additional year.

Mr. Flood spoke out after Education and Development Minister Paula Cox held a press conference on Thursday, and said the options were still being looked at by the Education Task Force.

She said a "hybrid" solution may be found, but said both CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute were currently trying to work out their timetables for the S4 year, and were considering having students attend school on a rotating shift system.

Three of the suggestions put over by the task force are:

* Creating a shift system, so students arrive at school at different times.

* Sending some pupils to Bermuda College for lessons.

* Bringing in portable classrooms for the school campus.

Mr. Flood said: "The majority of parents who have children in S3 don't want students leaving the campus and going to Bermuda College.

"And they are not happy about the students doing a shift system either. The parents want their children to remain on the campus and to carry on with their schooling the way they have until now.

"Parents are very concerned about how this is going to work out. It should have all been sorted by now. Why has it been left so late?

"We believe time is running out. Portable classrooms would probably be the best idea. It would create the least amount of fuss and change."

But Mr. Flood said some parents were also concerned that their children were being used as "guinea-pigs".

He said: "Some parents are concerned that their children are being used as guinea-pigs, yet again. It was the same children that were held back for the start of the middle school system. I think we just want reassurance that their education is not affected and that all the children are allowed to stay together."

And PTSA member Robin Richardson said it was the "indecision" of the Ministry that was causing most concern.

He added: "They should have had the system set up before these students even went into S3, where they are now.

"Who do we blame for leaving it so long? The main concern among the majority of parents is that their children stay on campus. The shift system isn't a bad idea, but I think portable classrooms will be better. I don't think they will be too expensive, and they can be very comfortable."

Minister Cox said the claim that Government had left it too late in the day to resolve the issue was a fair criticism, but she vowed that it would be done, and soon.

She said: "I think it's a valid criticism. I think, certainly, parents have been concerned. because I think they have probably felt that with the transition with senior schools and the middle schools they were maybe, not so much guinea-pigs, but they felt it was new and always when it's new there is always generally a resistance to change. So, I think parents feel in some ways that it could have been dealt with differently.

"I think that's fair comment. I think though one of the issues, not as an excuse for prior administrations or this one, is the fact that it was originally anticipated when CedarBridge Academy was prepared and built that it would have a higher functional capacity, in terms of numbers, and it wasn't able to do that.

"At the outset you started with a deficit and then this was compounded with the fact that the new secondary school (Berkeley Institute) was deferred onto a different timetable, not 2002, but September 2003 (when it is due to open)."