ill-behaviour among school students, the head of the Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers predicted last night.

Mr. Milton Scott also said that the students most in need of help would probably suffer the most as a result of the cutbacks.

He was presenting the ABUT's views on the planned cuts -- some of which have already taken place -- to the National PTA at a meeting held at the Paget Peace Lutheran Church. Some 30 to 40 parents and teachers attended.

"If the students' needs are not met, they will react in other ways,'' Mr.

Scott warned. "The cuts will manifest directly in discipline problems.'' Mr. Scott said teachers were already seeing "unprecedented'' discipline problems in the Island's schools. "The acts of violence in our schools that I hear of about once or twice a week will shock you,'' he said. "We are getting like a suburb in the US I know of.'' The proposed cuts, to total about $2.2 million, include 25 teachers, summer school, special needs programmes, 50 percent of the textbook budget, teachers' pay for overseas workshops and conferences, and grants for general equipment, supplies, and school trips.

Mr. Scott said that without the proper textbooks, materials and physical plant, students' needs would not be met.

He said only math, English and civics would be taught in summer school as a result of the cuts.

"We need all subjects,'' he said. "Rather than cutting the summer programme, we need to expand it.'' He added that if children with special needs were not looked after the public would end up paying.

"If we don't pay for quality education now we will end up paying for it in the future,'' he said. "We are now paying $44 million for a new prison which we might not have needed had Government provided quality education years ago.

Mr. Scott said teachers were angered that Government had reneged on its promise to put some $14 million into renovating and restructuring the schools.

After Mr. Scott left the meeting, stories were told of students with special needs who were being ignored.

One parent said her son was confined to a wheelchair, yet no ramps had been installed at his school.

Another parent told how her son had turned into a "nightmare'' who was "walking the streets illiterate'' because his teachers had failed to give him special attention for a learning problem.