Forty permanent substitute teachers have lost their jobs and public schools will now have to rely on on-call subs to cover staff absences after a scheme costing $3.4 million-a-year was axed.

The Ministry of Education has been criticised for pulling the plug on the programme, which saw substitute teachers assigned to specific schools and paid a salary regardless of whether or not they provided coverage.

Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) claims the decision was taken without consultation and could disrupt lessons.

But Ellen-Kate Horton, acting permanent secretary at the Ministry, said last night that students would not be inconvenienced.

The assigned substitute programme has run for several years, giving four permanent subs each to the two senior schools, one each to the middle schools and shared subs for primary schools.

The 40 subs were all employed on one-year contracts and had to report to their school every day.

They were paid even when there were no teacher absences to cover.

The scheme cost Government $3.4 million in the last academic year in addition to the salaries it paid for long-term substitutes covering maternity leave and extended staff absences.

Ms Horton said that from the start of this academic year there would be no full-time substitute teachers assigned to any of the public schools.

"A decision was made to discontinue the services of full-time substitute teachers and only have on-call substitute teachers for the new school year beginning in September," she said. "It is the intent of this Ministry to ensure that on-call substitute teachers are placed in schools when needed."

One substitute teacher, who found out she had lost her job just days before the new term started, told The Royal Gazette: "We have been thrown in the garbage. If I had known earlier, I would have said: 'let me apply for a job', (I would have) begged for a job or something."

The teacher said she expected to sign her yearly contract as normal this summer but was told by Ministry staff: "Your jobs have been made obsolete." She claimed none of the laid-off subs had been offered any other employment or financial recompense. "I'm in my early 50s and I was in education for 25 years," said the teacher. "Now I'm unemployed with no warning, nothing."

BUT president Lisa Trott said the assigned substitute programme was introduced several years ago at the suggestion of the union when the Ministry went over its budget for on-call subs.

She claimed the union was only informed of the decision to call time on the scheme on September 6. "This is another decision which is being made without consultation."

Ms Trott said having assigned subs was crucial to ensure classes were covered. "On any given day you are going to have at least one person out," she said. "As far as we were concerned that programme was working well for us. That was very helpful to the principals and to the Ministry because the alternative was to get a call at 7 a.m. and be told a teacher wasn't coming and you have to call all the names on the (on-call) list to see if you can get someone."

She said on-call teachers used to be paid on a pro-rata basis reflecting what they were paid when they gave up full-time teaching — so a retired principal who did 'filling in' work could be on a higher fee than a full-time teacher.

But Ms Trott said when the assigned subs system was set up a flat rate was instigated. "We took flak from our members who were getting paid the higher rate — they didn't think that was fair."

Ms Trott said for the good of the system a compromise was worked out with teachers promised cover from a sub if they wanted to go to an overseas workshop. "The Ministry came to us when we had a problem. We offered a solution, they accepted, now they are going back on the agreement so what about the things we gave up in order to get that?"