Education Minister Terry Lister yesterday assured parents that students at Berkeley Institute?s new school will not be placed in an unsafe construction site to continue their studies.

Mr. Lister was responding to reports from a PTSA meeting held on Thursday night when some parents said they would under no circumstances have students attend the school until all construction was complete.

?Parents are understandably concerned that their children are not placed in an unsafe environment,? Mr. Lister said.

?Government made a commitment earlier that this will not be the case and I repeat that commitment now ? we would not endanger the lives of our students by placing them in an unsafe environment.?

Mr. Lister said ongoing work at the school following a September hand-over would not be disruptive to students.

According to earlier reports, Mr. Lister had said that only some outfitting would still be taking place in the design and technology area of the school, on the lower level, and was due to be completed by September 5.

He said he was ?puzzled? by recent media reports on the second senior secondary school, both of which cited parents concerned.

?The public should know that a mechanism exists to negotiate any issues surrounding the transition to the new school,? he said.

Mr. Lister added that he was pleased with the working relationship between the school community and his Ministry and he was confident that all those concerns would be resolved by the time the school is handed over to the Ministry in September.

He went on to say that based on recent reports from PTSA President Sheldon Fox, a ?good working? relationship continued to exist with the Ministry as they moved ahead to address issues concerning the move to the new school.

This was confirmed by Mr. Fox who last night told that the PTSA was ?confident with present arrangements of Berkeley?s negotiating team and the Government team working out the transition to the new school?.

He said the PTSA meeting on Thursday night was simply to bring parents up to date on the meetings held between the school?s governing board, the PTSA and the Government.

Mr. Sheldon said there are currently about 600 pupils at Berkeley Institute, but that number will increase with the introduction of the new curriculum.

?We have to be satisfied that the new aspects are in place before we move our pupils,? he said.

However, when asked what he would do if the ?construction? was not complete by September, he said it was ?too soon to say?.

Meanwhile the Shadow Minister of Education, Neville Darrell, last night was adamant that despite Government?s promise there would be no construction at the site, he felt the school would never be completed on time.

?Why would Government put our children at risk?? he asked.

Mr. Darrell said children should not be allowed to enter the new school until all construction is complete, especially not under the ?phasing in system? Government proposed two years ago.

Under this system, students would be moved into completed parts of the school while construction continued on the rest of the building.

He said he felt Government needed a success ? no matter what the cost ? even if it meant exposing children to risk by having them on a construction site.

?I don?t feel parents are over-reacting. There is risk!? he said.