Government survey revealed.

And some are willing to pay up to $100 a year more to have some of Government's education reforms implemented as soon as possible, according to the controversial $25,000 survey carried out by Penn and Schoen Associates in April.

"Bermudians are clearly anxious to get these reforms underway,'' the survey presented by Education Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons in the House of Assembly last Friday said.

"Despite the soft economy and the importance of a balanced budget, nearly two thirds (64 percent of those surveyed) said improving the quality of education is too important for Bermuda to wait any longer.'' Nearly all of the 794 residents randomly polled by telephone agreed that Bermuda's public school system needs to be improved.

About 80 percent said education should be the most important priority in terms of Government spending, coming before the fight against crime and drugs.

And a majority, 52 percent favoured increased spending on education "even if this meant that Bermuda's balanced budget would be in jeopardy''.

After the improving of students' performance, respondents listed the following in order of priority: strengthening discipline; increasing the number of vocational programmes; more resources for special needs children; standardising the level of teacher performance across schools; raising expectations of students at the secondary level; separating children by ability; correcting racial imbalance; and eliminating the transfer exam.

"The vast majority of people support a variety of reform proposals now under consideration by Government,'' the survey said. "This high degree of consensus suggests that the Government should be able to count on a large segment of the population to back these changes as they are taking place.'' In light of the education reforms, 62 percent of those polled think Berkeley Institute will remain a "highly regarded, popular school''.

"However, three quarters of Bermudians (75 percent polled) said Berkeley will need additional facilities and resources to maintain its educational standing.'' Also, about half (46 percent) said they would prefer to have their child attend Berkeley, while less than half as many (22 percent) chose the new senior secondary school to be built at Prospect. But almost one third were undecided.

Last night, Mr. Simons said the survey -- which has a 3.5 percent margin of error for the entire poll, but higher for sub-groups -- "was useful to see the degree of support for implementing the restructuring programme''.

"It was very useful to see that in an objective manner,'' he added. "We have always believed we have had support. But until we did the survey, we were not sure about the degree of support.'' Mr. Simons said the fact that people are willing to spend more on improving education in Bermuda reflects recognition that education has enabled parents to help their children to lead a better life, with better options, than they had.

He said this is also one of the reasons more students are staying in the education system, then furthering their education.