Former Education Minister Mrs. Gloria McPhee has demanded a public apology from the current Minister.

In a terse letter to the Hon. Clarence Terceira copied to the Editor of The Royal Gazette , Mrs. McPhee accused Dr. Terceira of trying to alienate "Bermuda's teaching profession'' from her and her views.

She was referring to a letter Dr. Terceira sent to the Editor and distributed to teachers in the public school system.

In his three-page letter -- which came on the heels of a frank letter to the Editor from Mrs. McPhee, blasting the senior secondary school planned for Prospect, Dr. Terceira said: "I take great personal offence at the simplistic assertion that all of this planning and forethought are bad for Bermuda's schools and bad for our students.

"Mrs. McPhee does not believe that Bermuda has the skill, the teachers or the resources to operate a revitalised secondary school system.'' But Mrs. McPhee, in her latest letter told Dr. Terceira: "There is no basis whatsoever for your saying this; and for the record it is also completely untrue.

"I have to conclude that the only purpose for making such as patently false statement was the aim of alienating Bermuda's teaching profession from me and the views that I have expressed.

"As you cannot justify these remarks I call upon you to withdraw them publicly in the interest of decency.'' Dr. Terceira, however, told The Royal Gazette he had no reason to apologise to Mrs. McPhee.

He said his comments were "a natural assumption'' from what Mrs. McPhee said in her original letter.

And he said he hoped to see both Mrs. McPhee's original letter and his letter in response to it printed in their entirety in The Royal Gazette .

See Letters to the Editor on Page 4 in today's edition.