include a new $40-million senior secondary school at Prospect.

That was the message from Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira as MPs debated the 1995-96 estimates for the Ministry of Education in the House of Assembly yesterday.

"It is already started -- it's in place,'' said Dr. Terceira as protesting parents massed outside the Sessions House.

The National PTA has resolved to stop construction of the new 1,250 school, which parents describe as a mega-school.

For her part, Shadow Education Minister Ms Jennifer Smith said the Progressive Labour Party -- which wanted three senior schools, not the two that are planned -- is now committed to making sure Bermuda's students "get the best we can get'' out of what is planned.

Ms Smith said the Opposition will push to make sure the new school has small classes, an excellent curriculum, and clear standards and methods of assessing performance.

In a one-hour and 40-minute speech, Dr. Terceira said much had been accomplished since the Education Planning Team came forward with about 200 recommendations.

Government was undertaking "a fundamental restructuring of the education system'', which included the introduction of middle schools, the addition of another year of secondary school, the integration of special needs children, and a new Education Act. Also, a national education guarantee scheme which provided student loans had been introduced.

While facilities were "critical'' to the restructuring process, so was "a state of the art curriculum'' and teacher training.

Middle schools would be introduced in 1996, with Primary 7 becoming the first year of middle school. For that first year only, middle school would be taught in the primary schools, Dr. Terceira said.

The new school at Prospect would open in 1997, when two years of renovations at Berkeley Institute, the other senior secondary school, would begin.

The restructured system would offer a much wider range of courses, and an extra year of secondary school for students to explore them.

He then outlined the four levels that would make up the restructured system -- pre-school, primary, middle, and senior secondary.

Dr. Terceira said the Island's voluntary pre-schools began 26 years ago with the Head Start programme for disadvantaged children. But it was so successful that "advantaged'' families wanted in as well, he said. After becoming Minister, Dr. Terceira rectified "a glaring omission'' in the system -- the lack of a pre-school in each parish.

Moving to the primary level, the Minister touched on the controversial decision to move Dellwood Primary students to Northlands Secondary School. He promised Northlands would be made "a very suitable primary school indeed''.

The middle school level was an important transition between primary and secondary school, he said. In the current system, too many young people, especially males, were "falling through the cracks'' in moving from the nurturing primary level to the more demanding secondary school.

At the senior secondary level, "Government is completely committed to Berkeley and the project at Prospect'', he said. "Once that's there and built and we have the curriculum in place and the board in place, Bermuda will be proud of both Berkeley and the school at Prospect.'' More than 100 people were at work developing the curriculum for the new school, and this year they would be trained to use a new 4Mat computer software system used in designing lessons.

Turning to Bermudian students' performance on standardised tests, Dr. Terceira said: "We have a lot to be proud of in the current Bermuda school system.'' He touched on two Bermudian textbooks that had been introduced to the schools in recent years.

The new system would assure students were computer-literate, and all primary and secondary schools would soon be replacing their obsolete computer equipment.

And the five proposed middle schools would receive upgraded equipment for their computer labs in 1996-97.

Government committed to Prospect senior school He touched on life skills programmes, like one sponsored by the Lions Club, and said the Skills for Growing Programme would be extended to P5 and P6 this year from P1 to P4 currently.

And Dr. Terceira talked about partnerships between schools and businesses, as in the successful Young Enterprise programme.

Government was acting on an EPT recommendation to mainstream special needs students and after first closing Friendship Vale School would this year close Woodlands and Cedar Grove.

There was a "natural fear'' of this change, because the students "feel quite secure in these places.'' But courses would be offered to teachers and teaching assistants to help them provide for the special need students.

Behaviour problems in the school system were "very real,'' but the peer mediation conflict resolution programme would be offered throughout primary schools in September. The Ministry has promised funding to the Coalition for the Protection of Children that was sponsoring the programme.

Parents were encouraged to participate in the system, and Dr. Terceira said he met regularly with PTAs to hear their concerns and advise them of changes.

Parents recently contributed to preparation of a booklet, "The Rights and Responsibilities of Parents''.

There was a new system principals would use to appraise the performance of guidance counsellors, Dr. Terceira said.

There would be a middle school principals academy to help them develop a common vision for middle schools and develop a middle school handbook, he said.

The new education guarantee scheme was helping students going overseas for education to get bank loans of up to $10,000. Of 240 applications sent in the first year, 150 were approved for loans totalling $830,000.

An 18 percent increase in spending at Ministry headquarters was mainly due to the restoration of honoraria for teachers and the addition of a training officer, he said.

On professional development for teachers, Dr. Terceira said students would be let out of school for four days to allow for teacher workshops.

The Ministry would be taking on five consultants on contracts to help in areas like school management, supervision, and instruction, he said. They would help teachers and principals with teaching strategies, handling children with special needs, multicultural teaching, and peer coaching.

"This we feel is very important for the advances that we expect to be made in our restructured school system,'' Dr. Terceira said. As well as going into schools, the consultants would have a room as a training centre at Bishop Spencer School.

To keep teachers up-to-date, funds had to be made available to send them to conferences and training overseas. This year, funds were budgeted for 60 teacher trips, and Dr. Terceira said he hoped to increase that to about 150 next year.

More than $500,000 was budgeted for introductory courses for teachers who wanted to teach at the middle school level.

A study had shown problems with some school equipment, and new and improved photocopiers were being provided. Twenty of these "state of the art machines'' had already been installed.

Dr. Terceira said the cost per student in the public system was about the same as in the private system, despite the fact the public system accommodated special needs students, who were much more expensive to educate. It cost about $20,000 a year to educate a special needs student, as opposed to the $6,800 per student average in the public system. This was "comparable'' to places in North America.

There was $22.2 million set aside in the budget for the first phase of construction at Prospect, as well as $4 million for middle school renovations.

Extensive work had already begun at Whitney Institute, and plans were being made for work at the others.

Breaking down the $6,855 cost per student per year, Dr. Terceira said the special schools cost $2.76 million for 126 students, pre-schools cost $1.83 million for 500 children, primary school cost $17.9 million for 4,300 students, and secondary school cost $14.9 million for 2,100 students.

Returning to the violence problem in the schools, Dr. Terceira said violent students often came from violent homes. Students had to be taught how to control anger, and teachers almost had to be surrogate parents.

"We're on the right track,'' Dr. Terceira said. "We're doing the right thing for the people of Bermuda.'' He said the restructured school system would "be the envy of the rest of the world''.

This debate will be concluded in tomorrow's newspaper .

Ministry of Education, 1995-96 estimates Ministry responsibility: To ensure that the youth of Bermuda receive adequate educational opportunities.

Budget estimate: $59,412,000 (last year $57,994,000) Budget allocation Ministry headquarters $2,757,000 Department of education $47,562,000 Bermuda College $9,093,000 Revenue $81,000