Minister Ms Jennifer Smith told the House of Assembly on Monday.

Ms Smith was debating the 1995-96 Budget estimates for the Ministry of Education.

"A little money spent right is better than a lot of money spent wrong,'' she said.

With a $59 million operating budget and another $36 million set aside for capital items, Bermuda's students appeared to be well-served financially.

Some students were performing well, and the Country was proud of them. But they were not the reason that Government was restructuring the school system.

Former Education Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons was quoted in 1987 as saying one of the reasons behind the restructuring "was the loss of young black males from the system,'' Ms Smith said.

But the problem continued to this day, as Government selectively adopted some of the recommendations of the Education Planning Team. Recommendations for technology training and multicultural education had been adopted.

But the EPT also talked about the need for representational teaching staff and school boards.

Most teachers were women, Ms Smith said. "It's important to provide our young males with a positive male authority figure, particularly at the early levels.'' Government must attract male teachers, says Smith Many young boys in the public school system came from single-parent households headed by women.

Government had to get "proactive'' about attracting male teachers and work at "getting rid of the perception of what was generated'' by the Warren Jones affair.

Catering to all four-year-old in pre-schools, not just half of them, would also help young black males, Ms Smith said.

Bermuda needed to standardise that early learning experience and make sure all youngsters could attend, regardless of their economic or social backgrounds.

While public pre-schools came under the Ministry of Education, private ones came under the Ministry of Health and Social Services. So a new standardised curriculum for pre-schools would not necessarily be followed by private pre-schools and children in public pre-schools would have an advantage.

The Child Development Project also came under Health and Social Services but belonged under Education, Ms Smith said.

Literacy problems were another reason behind the reforms. There was no hard data about the problem, but plenty of anecdotal evidence.

Bermuda College has had to teach remedial reading, along with writing and math, and that was for high school graduates the college accepted. Last September, 96 students were turned away because they did not have the necessary skills, Ms Smith said.

"We are continuing to graduate young people who do not have the basic skills,'' she said. "That has got to be an indictment against the Government.'' Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira had said there was no turning back on the senior secondary school. The PLP was on record as supporting three senior secondary schools, not two, but "we are not in charge,'' Ms Smith said.

If Government went ahead with the new school, "our attention is focussed on how we can make that work,'' she said.

She wanted to make sure the new school would have small classes and a proper curriculum. It should have clear standards and methods of assessing performance. Performance assessment and accountability had to start at the top, with education officers and the Minister himself, she said.

Standardised tests were not a good way of testing ability, because children learned at different rates, and the slow learner could have more ability in the long run.

Government should establish certain levels that are age appropriate, and "make those the standard,'' she said. Lack of standards was "at the bottom of the unease that is currently being felt by the public,'' along with the size of the new school.

"What are you designing the system to do?'' Ms Smith asked. "We haven't heard a clear and direct goal'' in terms of standards.

Government should not let a student advance to the next level without first mastering the previous level, Ms Smith said. And if comparisons were to be made with other countries, compare Bermuda's system with the best ones, like New Zealand's primary system, or Japan's secondary system. There should be an independent inspector to make schools accountable for their performance.

"That would go a long way to restoring public confidence,'' Ms Smith said.

"The public is clearly not impressed with the current education system. The public is furious.

"And the public is voting with their feet. They are taking their children out. My concern must be those children who will remain in the public system.'' Turning to recent public concerns from former Education Minister Mrs. Gloria McPhee that the new senior secondary school would polarise the races, Ms Smith said the races had always been polarised in the school system.

"What perhaps was meant to be said was that it would do nothing to help the integration of students,'' Ms Smith said. "When you have someone of the stature of the former Education Minister expressing her fear it carries a lot of weight, especially with the public already frustrated and angry.'' Everyone in Bermuda except the Ministry had expressed opposition to the new school. Now, the frustration was extending to the rest of the reform plan.

Turning to documents recently mailed out to each household in Bermuda, Ms Smith said she feared Dr. Terceira was becoming more interested in talking people around to his point of view than he was in listening.

When he mailed out the document and it was criticised, his response was that it constituted communication with the public, Ms Smith said. But the public wanted dialogue and to be involved.

"What about the EPT?'' interpolated Health and Social Services Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness .

"I'm glad you brought that up,'' Ms Smith said. The EPT wanted three secondary schools, she said, and "many of their recommendations have not been followed.'' The EPT had a drug policy and a code of conduct, neither of which the Ministry yet had.

Students should be screened at an early age for language and hearing problems, Ms Smith said. Each primary school should have a reading programme and reading specialist, and each secondary school a math lab.

In September, private school enrolment was at 2,800, up 44 percent since Government began its school reforms.

The previous Minister thought Government just had to get the message out that the system was working. He saw it as "a public relations exercise,'' Ms Smith said. But the system was in "crisis.'' Teachers, who were mainly female, were vulnerable to increasing violence in schools. They needed "instant ability to call for help'' when required.

Ms Smith said the largest increase in funding was for the ministry headquarters. The same scrutiny that was directed at capital projects should go to assuring the department was cost-effective, she said.

As for the number of jobs at headquarters increasing to 26 from nine, "if there's no difference between a teacher working there and an education officer, then why the change?'' Ms Smith asked.

There used to be a truant officer, and she understood there no longer was one.

The EPT had recommended three such officers, whose job would be encouraging young people to come to school.

"I find it quite interesting that the number of teachers has gone down, while the number of people both at the ministry headquarters and administration have gone up.'' But she welcomed the restoration of funding for sabbaticals and honoraria. Ms Smith asked how many students were currently abroad on teacher training awards "and how the Ministry intends to use them.'' She knew of others who had returned from such courses and could not find work with the Ministry.

She questioned the $8,000 budgeted for office equipment at headquarters, when the EPT had recommended the relocation of the entire Ministry.

Questioning the $26,000 budgeted for public relations, Ms Smith said the recent Ministry mail-out was "a waste of money.'' "People did not read it,'' she said. "They phone into the talk shows and I can tell from the questions and the comments that they're not aware. Why haven't they read it? We go right back to our school system. We are producing people who don't read.'' Instead of in-service training, the Ministry should have a much broader staff development programme, she said. And teachers with innovative ideas could be rewarded with a trip or money. The PLP agreed with mainstreaming, but Government had put "the cart before the horse,'' Ms Smith said.

The schools should have been physically prepared for the students first, and the teachers and students mentally prepared. Then the special students would have been moved last, she said. But Government was doing it backwards.

She wanted to know what would happen to the special schools that were closed.

On school violence, a multi-pronged approach was needed, including coming to grips with the problems that were making young people angry in the first place. But until then, part of the solution had to be taking disruptive students out of the regular schools.

Turning to Government's plan to move Dellwood Primary students to Northlands Secondary school, Ms Smith said people were recently selling drugs on the Dellwood site, slated for a middle school. Government should "think carefully about the logic of putting adolescents in that location,'' she said. "We have a little bit more control over the younger ones than we do the adolescents.'' Parents had vowed to "fight on'' over the switch, but it was another issue where the Minister was saying "he's not going to be moved.'' "Sometimes I wonder whether he realises that education is a service and parents and students are the customers. Just like any business, if the client is not happy with the service, they go elsewhere.

"We're now left with those who have nowhere else to go and must make the system responsive to them.'' The Minister talked about the importance of parental involvement in education, but when parents did get involved, they were demeaned.

Northlands students, on the other hand, were in an inadequate building and "must be moved,'' Ms Smith said. "Take a fresh look -- an unbiased look at the situation.'' She wanted to know why the Minister refused to table a report related to the switch, which had been paid for with public funds. "What is the secret?'' Funds were needed to secure school boundaries, she said, noting that St.

George's Secondary School was "wide open.'' The Minister had said the Bermuda Secondary School Certificate would be replaced. What would be the cost of replacing it, and how would the new certificate be different? June would mark the end of tertiary education available through the Bases. Ms Smith hoped the schools represented at the Base would be able to keep a presence in Bermuda through Bermuda College.

"They have given great service to this Country,'' she said of the University of Maryland, Webster University, and City Colleges. "Many people who could not get a degree otherwise have been able to get one.'' Mr. Rick Spurling (UBP) said education was an important pillar of society and fundamental change "naturally leads to anxiety.'' The original concerns behind the restructuring were that the system was falling behind, was discriminatory, and had a limited and old-fashioned curriculum, Mr. Spurling said.

Both the current and previous Education Minister had met with the public and PTAs, built consensus, and moved forward, Mr. Spurling said.

The new school, which would accommodate 800 to 1,200 students, was big by Bermuda standards. But not by North American standards, where schools often held 3,000 children. There were economies of scale and enhanced opportunities in larger schools, he said.

Government had originally planned only one senior secondary school. But it had bowed to public pressure and there would now be two -- Prospect and Berkeley.

"It seems odd now that at the 11th hour, all of this emotion is suddenly being generated again,'' said Mr. Spurling, who believed politics was behind the controversy.

Government had signed a contract and broken ground on the new school and was "unable to change'' without severe penalties.

On school security, Mr. Spurling said the Minister was "ahead of the game.'' He had a report on the subject and had initiated three security pilot projects in the schools.

Violence was tied in with problems of illegitimacy, teen pregnancy, and drugs, he said.

The economy was changing and young black males who held most of the unskilled jobs had been put out of work, he said. If the economy improved, more construction jobs would return. But training and education were the real solutions.

There were many good things happening in the school system and one should not "focus inordinately on each individual problem.'' "The political rhetoric and the political opportunism that characterise the Opposition approach is really designed to destabilise the Government,'' he said.

On the Northlands-Dellwood controversy, the Minister had made concessions on just about every concern of the parents. Therefore, one would not think the issue would remain, but it had, Mr. Spurling said. "It suggests that it's mostly political.''