Most students can succeed in any school, despite the size, if there are quality programmes and staff.

Visiting American veteran educator Dr. Donald J. Henderson expressed this view yesterday after learning of Bermuda's education reform plans.

The plans, designed to stamp out selectivity and provide better educational opportunities for all students, include eliminating regular high schools and creating five middle schools and two senior secondary schools by the year 2000.

While most of the plans have been generally accepted, the number of students slated to attend the senior secondary school currently under construction at Prospect has been a point of contention.

And Education Minister Jerome Dill has promised to review Government's plan to put some 1,200 high school students at Prospect in 1997.

But yesterday after meeting with Mr. Dill, Dr. Henderson told The Royal Gazette he believed the Island was "heading in the right direction'' in reforming the public school system.

"If you don't change, you will continue to have what you've always had,'' Dr.

Henderson said. "I applaud your Island for looking at changing your system.'' Dr. Henderson -- who is the superintendent of some 50 schools in the Richland County School District of Columbia, South Carolina which consists of primary, middle, and high schools with enrolment ranging from 1,800 to 200 students -- has been an educator for the past 30 years.

Before entering the Columbia school system 15 years ago, he was a middle school principal of a school of 700 students in Gary, Indiana.

And he stressed that he had seen students succeed in schools of various sizes.

Responding to public concerns that larger schools will increase violence, drug abuse, and other negative elements in schools, Dr. Henderson said: "What you have to do is staff the school so that you can control it.'' He explained that the middle school in Indiana had three adult campus monitors who were hired to "keep outsiders out and insiders in''.

Campus monitors also carried walkie talkies to stay in touch with school administrators, Dr. Henderson said. And whenever problems came up the monitors and two assistant principals responded immediately.

Dr. Henderson said programmes could also be set up within the curriculum of any school to help teachers deal with troubled students.

"A middle school is not just about putting grade six, seven, and eight together,'' he said. "There are programmes that one needs to put in place as well as peer mediation. You also need to have teachers who have a certain disposition to deal with students with the understanding that you can set limits and still let them be adolescents.'' Dr. Henderson added that teachers' expectations played a key role in students' performance.

"We say that all children can learn,'' he said. "The issue is what is the expectation. If everybody expects them to do it, that is encouraging.'' And to those who have argued that students will simply become numbers at large schools, Dr. Henderson added: "You can go through any school, if you wish, and be anonymous, even if you are at a small school. You need to structure programmes so that a child does not become anonymous.'' He also noted that there were specific advantages to having students of various academic levels together.

"We can concentrate resources to deal with their problems socially, educationally, and emotionally,'' Dr. Henderson said. "It also brings together teachers who have a good idea of how to teach young people and you have people there who want to be there.'' While admitting that a larger gathering of students can be more "volatile'', he pointed out that that was why it was imperative to have good staffing and programmes.

Alternative schools was also an option, he added.

Also visiting with Dr. Henderson was division director for the Community Relations Division of South Carolina's Human Affairs Commission, Miss Garlette D. Black.

Miss Black stressed the importance of setting up human relations councils within every community.

Explaining that the councils set up in South Carolina were diverse groups of highly-respected people who represented a broad cross section of the community, she said their main objective was to allow people's concerns to be aired and addressed before issues became explosive.

The groups frequently surveyed their communities to keep abreast of what areas needed to be addressed, she added.

"They look at what can be done to educate the community. The key is to be proactive rather than reactive.'' Similar student councils had been set up at two high schools so far, Miss Black said, to deal with such issues as race and peer pressure.

And she added that she believed such groups could be effective in Bermuda.

Both Miss Black and Dr. Henderson were guest of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Thomas.