The Immigration Department has never told a private school -- or any other employer -- who to hire, Labour and Home Affairs Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman said yesterday.

Mr. Pearman was responding to recent comments by Mr. John (Jack) Wright, the outgoing headmaster of the Bermuda High School for Girls.

In an interview with The Royal Gazette , Mr. Wright said Government's Immigration policies could sound "the death knell'' for top private schools like the Bermuda High School for Girls.

"We can not be directed by Government to tell us who to teach,'' Mr. Wright said.

"When they write and say, `You must take so and so,' and they name the actual person that I've got to hire, if that is allowed to continue, that is the death knell of a good school.'' In a prepared statement yesterday, Mr. Pearman said his department "does not tell any employer who to hire'' and "we have never told Mr. Wright who to hire.

"What we will do, and I make no apology for this, is to challenge an employer's reasons for rejecting a particular applicant from time to time,'' Mr. Pearman said. "I see that as a perfectly reasonable method of carrying out our mandate to look out for the interests of Bermudians.'' But Mr. Wright said yesterday he stood by his earlier comments. And he released photocopies of letters that he said backed his claim.

One letter from the Immigration Department, dated June 23, said: "Be advised that permission to employ the above-named person in the category specified has been refused.

"Mrs. (name of Bermudian deleted) could fill this position ...'' Another letter, dated May 9, says: "Your application of April 25, 1995 to employ (name deleted) ... does not show that Mr. (name of Bermudian deleted) can not do the job.'' In his statement, Mr. Pearman said Mr. Wright's comments and those made by the Editor of The Royal Gazette in an editorial on Thursday seemed to be based on "an underlying assumption ... that Bermudians are incapable of teaching to their high standards''.

"It is an assumption which I find insulting,'' he said. "Doubly so when one considers how many competent Bermudians there are in this community (who have) proven beyond all doubt that it is a myth to think that Bermudians are somehow intellectually inferior to their British or North American colleagues.'' The editorial accused the Government of trying to lower the standards in private schools so that the public system would be more attractive.

Mr. Pearman said his department "is charged with ensuring fair play in the employment field. If someone is brought to work in Bermuda, he or she must have abilities not available in Bermuda.'' He said private schools took the position that because they used the English system instead of the American one, they needed teachers trained in the English system.

"If Immigration accepted that at face value, private schools would not have a single Bermudian teacher, because our teachers almost universally are trained in North America,'' Mr. Pearman said. "Immigration does not accept that.'' But Mr. Wright said all primary teachers in years one through six at the all girls' school were Bermudian. So were 17 of Bermuda High School's 28 teachers at the secondary level. And nearly all of them were trained in Britain, he said.

Mr. Pearman also noted that Mr. Wright, who is American, would not be qualified to teach in his own school.

That was true, Mr. Wright said. "I could not teach at BHS.'' But, "I was not brought in as a teacher, I was brought in as a headmaster, and this is my 27th year of being a headmaster.''