weakness, nor does it mean that the wrong decision was made in the first place. It can show flexibility based on new facts.

Premier Jennifer Smith and Education Minister Milton Scott's decision to allow St. George's Preparatory School to have a second primary one class is a fine example of just that.

Parents, black and white, Bermudian and non-Bermudian, wished to send their children to St. George's Prep. The school had, it turned out, believed it would have to spend money to accommodate the extra classroom. Now the school appears to have found a classroom which will do just fine.

Because of that, Government changed its mind and allowed the school the extra class.

Premier Smith promised last month that she would take another look at the issue; she kept her promise and was able to make the parents happy. She and Sen. Scott deserve credit for that.

Nonetheless, Government needs to make a decision on school choice -- or the lack thereof -- once and for all.

This has been a prickly problem ever since the Island's schools -- then primarily white or primarily black -- were amalgamated in the early 1970s.

Drawing districts for individual primary schools ran the risk of segregating schools all over again.

The Government's decision to cut infants department's class sizes to 15 students per class exacerbated the problem, since not every school could accommodate twice the number of classes, nor could every school double its teachers for those classes.

Under the current system, schools with reputations for excellence will invariably get more applications than they have places. Disappointed parents may well decide to send their children to private schools, thus weakening the public school system further.

The long term answer is to set and maintain standards of school administration and teaching to ensure that all Government schools are centres of excellence.

The steady progress that CedarBridge Academy is making shows what can happen when a dedicated principal and teachers pull together and parents, students and the wider community commit themselves to improving a school.

Yet some principals and teachers will always be better than others, and some Parent Teacher Associations and local communities will be better than others too. That means that even if all schools reach an agreed standard of excellence, it is likely that some schools will still be more popular than others.

If those schools are rewarded with higher entries, then so be it. But parents who are still unsuccessful in getting their children into those school should have some assurance that an alternative school has the potential to be just as good, especially if the parents get involved and work with the school's administration to help to improve it.