they called for alternative education for students who have proven to be unmanageable in a traditional school setting.

It's unthinkable because they made the call at a time when the Government is headed pell-mell in the opposite direction -- towards the creation of two comprehensive "mega schools'' which are supposed to rescue students who are at risk.

It shows up the flawed thinking behind the education reform plan -- that bigger is better -- both in terms of academics and discipline.

We think these senior secondary schools will fail to prepare Bermudian students for a demanding high-tech future and are unlikely to prepare them for entry to good colleges, including Bermuda College. We think that, as planned, these schools will poorly serve our students who need more than they are getting right now and not less.

Government has decided to encourage people to pay for private education and to use everyone else in a social engineering experiment. The aim is to lower the standards until everyone enjoys success, hoping that success will stop wall sitting. But easy "success'' in school, which leaves a student ill-prepared to fulfill a satisfying job, leads to failure later.

The result of this new education plan is likely to be a long-term disaster. If we continue, Bermuda will probably spend ten years trying to make the grand scheme work, followed by another ten years undoing the mess and putting in place a new and workable system of education. In the meantime, Bermuda's children will suffer. The sad thing is that those Bermudians most in need of help will suffer most. The white students, the middle class students and the bright students are already fleeing the system for private education here and abroad because their parents do not trust what is happening and, probably, never will.

The people with clout in the Country are not making a fuss about what we see as a disaster for Bermuda because they do not see the problem as applying to them. They have no intention of putting their children and grandchildren into the Government school system.

We created a problem and have adopted an extreme solution. For some years now senior schools have been uneven in terms of both teaching talent and physical facilities. Clearly, that was wrong. We think that if these inequalities are corrected and the schools are brought up to a uniform standard, that will go a long way toward removing the stigma attached to some schools which marks them as second rate. This stigma seems to have arisen because the Ministry of Education treated these schools as unworthy of first rate attention. The public followed the thinking of the Ministry and treated students at those schools as second rate which was a great shame. That in turn left students with a lack of ambition and a defeatist lack of self-respect. This led to a problem which people have already identified, that young men, especially young black men, "fell through the cracks'' and turned to crime and drugs. That needs to be dealt with but what we are planning is not a solution.

What this newspaper thinks is about to happen is nothing short of a crying shame. We think the Ministry's plan amounts to putting everyone under its control in two schools, where it will lower the standards, shortchange the students, then give them awards and tell them they are a success and send them out unprepared for the demands they will face in modern Bermuda. We already send students abroad to some colleges which do that to them. We should guard against it at home. Instead, we are preparing to put those who are already in danger with a wider crack to fall through.

The solution is properly equipped and staffed small senior schools, unstigmatised by the Ministry, where the needs of those in danger can be met by attention and help. Right now we plan to put them in a mega school where they will naturally gravitate to the lowest level and disappear through the cracks.