Teachers who have not completed the required amount of professional development (PD) hours will not have their licences renewed by Bermuda Educators Council (BEC).

Public and private school teachers have until the end of the month to submit 40 hours of PD or face not being able to teach.

A spokeswoman for the BEC said 75 percent of teachers across-the-board had either completed or exceeded the 40 hours.

"This is not meant to be a burden, rather, it ensures educators have the opportunity to continually develop and upgrade their skills and more importantly that our educators are in the position to provide the highest quality of education to Bermuda's young people," she said.

BEC said public schools provide 35 hours of mandatory PD every September, November and February, leaving teachers with five hours to attain on their own.

Acting Ministry of Education officer Terry Cox said preparations for the launch of the Cambridge International Curriculum meant there was "no shortage" of professional development for Government teachers this year.

But the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) claimed there was confusion surrounding the amount of hours required, with the expected 40 hours a year too much. An e-mail from BEC director Sheila Hendrickson to educators laid out the requirements if they wanted a licence to teach in September.

It stated expectations that educators would have 40 PD hours and paraprofessionals would have 35 PD hours, for the 2009/2010 school year.

The e-mail read in part "Individuals who are currently in deficit may use both local and online courses to obtain the requisite number of hours. The BEC office can assist in determining if a particular course is acceptable."

But Mike Charles, General Secretary of the BUT said: "The BEC can't even tell you where to go to get professional development. Where can we get 40 hours? And this is our contention right now.

"Forty hours is just too much. No other jurisdiction asks for that many hours. The Ministry does provide some hours in September over two days. There's only so many hours, maybe four, hours, maybe eight hours, maybe ten but where do you get the other 30?"

Mrs. Cox said most teachers had exceeded the required 40 hours due to preparations for the launch of the Cambridge Curriculum in September.

"There may have been teachers outside of the core areas math, science, English who weren't able to get the hours."

A music teacher might have not had as much opportunity although "there was no shortage on professional development provided", she added.

"I would be surprised if teachers don't have the correct amount of hours, this year in particular."

The required number of hours was set two years ago and the information was widely circulated, said the BEC.