A single mother has reached her wits' end over the simple task of getting the right school shirt for her daughter.

And despite promises made by the Ministry of Education to reimburse parents who bought the wrong uniform, Shirley Smith said the Ministry official responsible for the matter will not even speak with her.

Shirley Smith's daughter was sent home again yesterday, with a directive from her school head to get the correct school uniform shirt.

The 17 year old learned on the first day of school that she was not to attend Berkeley Institute but had been enrolled instead at the new alternative school, The Education Centre (TEC).

That school has a yellow shirt as part of its uniform. Berkeley students wear white shirts.

But her mother said she cannot find yellow shirts to fit her daughter and yesterday the school principal said he would go and look for one personally.

Ms Smith said she had been treated shoddily from the start as Berkeley's principal called her at about 10 a.m. on the first day of school to say that her daughter was no longer enrolled there.

"I was shocked, she knocked me right off sides when she told me that," Ms Smith said.

But Ms Smith said her stomach sank and she felt "really awful inside" when her daughter called her after attending TEC to tell her the school did not have her on record.

Ms Smith said she then had to "do the run around" and discovered there had been a mix-up and her daughter's records had not been forwarded to TEC.

The confusion resulted in her daughter missing a few days of school. "Nobody ever called me and explained what was going on. I felt awful inside. They put my daughter out of school and all I could think was that there was no where for her to go."

Ms Smith said she went to TEC and met with the director Declan Harris and explained that she had bought five white shirts for her daughter as she expected she was returning to Berkley.

Yesterday Mr. Harris confirmed that Ms Smith had spoken with him about the shirt and he said he directed her to the Ministry.

"I told her that it had been reported in the Press that parents would be reimbursed," he said.

And Ms Smith said she felt better about it after she spoke with education officer Dr. Judith Bartley.

"Ms Bartley told me that her word was as good as mine which I took to mean that she would follow through with what she had told me."

But Ms Smith said that Dr. Bartley eventually called her and said that the education officer in charge of student services - Joanne Smith had said that she would take over the case.

And Ms Smith said that from that time to this she has been calling education officer Smith but had no response. "I swear I must have called her about 50,000 times," she said.

"I have called her at all different times of the day, every day for weeks and she has not returned any of my calls."

But when The Royal Gazette contacted Joanne Smith yesterday, she said she had not heard from the single mother.

"I do return my phone calls and I am prepared to work with her to resolve this situation," she said. The education officer said that according to her records she had tried to phone Ms Smith on September 16 but was unable to contact her.

Ms Smith said that she is not looking for monetary reimbursement. "I don't want them to give me any money, just five yellow shirts for my daughter," she said.

And she explained that on a previous occasion when TEC contacted her about the uniform problem they discovered that there were no yellow shirts.

Mr. Harris yesterday said he had sent the 17 year old home to have her non compliance with the uniform addressed.

She returned to the facility with her mother who explained that she gets paid on Thursdays.

The headmaster said he loaned them $25 but the daughter returned his money reporting that she was unable to find her size. "We don't have the resources and we don't have them on hand," said Mr. Harris.

"I sent her to The English Sports Shop and apparently the largest size they have is a 15 and a half. I will check myself after work to see if I can find a shirt to fit her."

Joanne Smith said she would in turn contact Mr. Harris.

"We can't require her to wear something that is not on the Island," she said.

And education officer Smith also said she would be willing to repay the single mother for the five shirts she already bought.

"We had said we would reimburse parents and so we will.

"I have had three parents that made that request and I have sent the information in and it is being processed," she said.

Told last night of the Ministry's response, a clearly relieved Ms Smith said: "I have been telling you the truth.

"I had just reached my last straw and saw no other option but than to come to the media."