The Bermuda Union of Teachers says it has documents proving Education Minister Randy Horton wrong in a row over absent teachers.

The Minister has quashed claims from the union that teachers are too often expected to cover classes for missing colleagues, and sometimes it's impossible to find stand-ins.

But union general secretary Mike Charles has since obtained internal memos which, he claimed, show there is a problem.

The information he shared with The Royal Gazette showed that on Monday, April 14 nine teachers were absent from one of Bermuda's public schools, out of a staff numbering 40 to 45. The document shows that three classes were left with no teacher to cover them.

The following day 15 teachers were absent, and again there were three classes without cover. Mr. Charles did not wish for the school in question to be identified, in order to protect the source of his information.

"We don't know how many kids that is (affected) but it tells you there are problems," said Mr. Charles. "I don't know where the Minister is getting his information from."

An additional document shared with this newspaper showed that of 11 public schools — not including the largest CedarBridge Academy — there were 36 teachers off work on Monday, April 14 and Tuesday, April 15.

Mr. Charles also claimed that on an average day there are seven to nine teachers off work at each of Bermuda's senior schools.

The row over staff levels sparked a strike threat by the union earlier this month. It blamed a Government decision last September to axe a programme that assigned substitute teachers to specific schools for making the problem worse.

Prior to that, said Mr. Charles, four assigned substitutes were available at Berkeley Institute each day and five at CedarBridge Academy, helping ease the problem of finding cover.

"Now they've got to find nine each day," he claimed. "The assigned teachers system was working well, there were no complaints."

Defending the move to cease the programme, Mr. Horton said earlier this month that it did not serve its purpose to reduce expenditure on substitute teachers.

The Minister also praised Bermuda's school system for having a good staff-pupil ratio, and stated: "Regarding a lack of class coverage, we have checked with the principals of each school to see whether there is any evidence of this happening and have been told that there is not.

"We are aware that teachers are absent from school from time to time. However, principals are free to call on substitute teachers to manage classrooms. In fact, it is not uncommon for principals to cover classes for absent teachers."

The threatened industrial action was halted last week when Labour Minister David Burch referred the matter to the Labour Disputes Tribunal. No date has been set for an arbitration hearing, although Mr. Charles wants to see the outcome as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, he is not just concerned about alleged difficulties covering for the absentees, he wants to know why so many teachers are off work in the first place.

"I've worked in New York City and I find the absence rate here is a bit high. Maybe people feel more stressed than any place else," speculated Mr. Charles.

"We've never got to the bottom of the absenteeism rate but this is not for us to look at, it's the Ministry that should be looking at it because we need to know what the roots are."

A Ministry of Education spokeswoman was invited to comment, but responded: "The Ministry is reviewing the matter and does not wish to respond at this time."