Three education officers and a retired teacher have volunteered to supervise 60 children due to delays in the opening of middle and some primary schools.

Education Minister Jerome Dill yesterday announced that the officers, who have agreed to suspend their normal duties, will supervise the five to eight year olds for the remainder of the week at the Seventh Day Adventist Church Hall on King Street.

Mr. Dill also encouraged other retired teachers to telephone the Ministry if they were able to offer their services.

Hundreds of parents were caught off guard last week when the Education Ministry announced that the Island's middle schools -- Sandys, Spice Valley, Whitney, Clearwater and Dellwood -- and three primary schools -- Northlands, West Pembroke, and East End -- were not ready mainly due to construction delays caused by the weather.

All of the above schools, which were supposed to open on Monday, will open next week Monday except Dellwood which is now slated to begin classes on September 22.

Mr. Dill therefore asked teachers, through the BUT, to supervise students at various locations during the week.

But the BUT executive said teachers were not supervisors and they needed to focus on preparations for the new school year, including cleaning and preparing classrooms and preparing lesson plans which they were not able to do because they were in workshops up to last week.

And they claimed that the Ministry would not have found itself in such a situation, if it had consulted with the union which warned about the delays earlier this summer.

But a handful of teachers at East End Primary volunteered to supervise students on a rotating basis at St. George's Community Centre.

The Ministry of Youth and Sport and various sporting groups also offered their assistance.

Youth and Sport extended its summer day camp programme to accommodate 72 children from Northlands and Dellwood at the Angle Street Centre.

And a sports academy, organised by the Bermuda Football Association, the Bermuda Cricket Board of Control, and the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association, was made available to children between the ages of nine and 14.

With some 60 children showing up at the academy on Monday and more yesterday, Bermuda Schools Sports Federation administrator Clint Smith told The Royal Gazette he was very pleased with the response of the children.

"We had a lovely group of boys and girls, considering it (the idea) was only conceived late on Friday,'' Mr. Smith said.

The children had a choice of football with BFA technical director Clyde Best, tennis at the Government tennis stadium with local professional tennis player Coolridge Place, cricket by BCBC coaches at Devonshire Recreational Club, and squash at the Bermuda Squash Club.

While the children enjoyed themselves, Mr. Smith said they were learning at the same time.

"It was like being in school,'' he noted. "Hopefully, they will learn more than just playing football and tennis. We're trying to instil through sports some form of character building.'' He added that he was also "more than elated'' with Mr. Best and his four assistants, Mr. Place, and other assistant coaches.

Yesterday, Mr. Dill said the Youth and Sport programme at the centre was full, but there were still 100 places for children at the National Stadium-based sports academy.

"I would like to say again how much the Government appreciates the assistance from the sporting organisation and from those churches which offered the use of their facilities,'' he stated.

"I would like also to thank the Director of Youth Development, Sport and Recreation who volunteered the services of his Ministry.'' Noting that he realised the school opening delays caused inconvenience for some parents, Mr. Dill thanked parents for their patience and promised that his Ministry would "continue to try to assist wherever possible''.