Bermuda's community education programme will be promoted as a model for rest of the world.

Visiting International Community Education Association chief executive officer Colin McMillan this week told The Royal Gazette he was impressed with what he saw during his two-day visit.

"You have got a range of community education programmes ranging from formal courses, such as mathematics and French, to less formal courses, such as parenting and marriage.

"What you do here in Bermuda is really a model which we can put to many regional offices throughout the world,'' he said.

The International Community Education Association operates in seven regions, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the South Pacific.

Bermuda is a part of the Caribbean region.

Mr. McMillan, who is from the UK, said he had visited several regions, but Bermuda -- which he visited for the first time -- was the most successful in carrying out the scheme.

"Of your population of 60,000 about 40,000 people have passed through, in one way or the other, the education programme,'' he noted. "If we could get two thirds of the population of other regions to go through the programme, then the world will be a better place.

"I was overwhelmed by the vast breath of the programme you carry out and by the dedication of the people involved which is wonderful.'' Mr. McMillan also said he sensed a "brotherhood'' among Bermudians.

"One of the things the ICEA has to do is to combat prejudice by respecting diversity of human nature,'' he pointed out. "We're trying to bring us into the next millennium by changing people's behaviour.

"Here in Bermuda you have people of different religious and cultural backgrounds. But everyone gets along. This is admirable.'' Director of Bermuda's Community Education Association Eugene Vickers, who was part of the planning team instrumental in bringing Mr. McMillan to Bermuda, said the association aimed to educate the community as a whole.

He noted that community education programmes were offered throughout the Island, including at Sandys Secondary, Roger B. Chaffee, Northlands, the computer centre at the old Bishop Spencer School site, and at Warwick Secondary where it originated.

Mr. Vickers said some 42,000 people have taken the courses since they began 18 years ago.

And he noted that such people came from a broad cross-section of the community, including doctors and lawyers.

"It's one of the best things that Government has implemented,'' he said.

Bermuda will develop a federation throughout the Caribbean and bring representatives from the Caribbean to Bermuda in January.

Mr. Vickers said he also planned to attend the National Education Association in the US next month in hopes of collecting more information on improving community education.

EDUCATION ED