Government last night came under fire for putting forward the legislation for a teacher licensing scheme which educators claim could be nothing more than a register of school staff.

Two years after the Ministry of Education first announced its intention to make every teacher accountable and licensed, executive members of the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) said the plans now put forward were not what they had envisaged.

Members of the House of Assembly are set to debate the scheme, which is contained in the Bermuda Educators' Council Act, in Parliament today.

It is the Ministry's hope that the council will be formed consisting of various educators, who will then operate the scheme to ensure that every teacher in both public and private schools is licensed.

Last night, union General Secretary Michael Charles urged the Ministry to ensure that all major factors had been considered before agreeing to push the bill through.

He said the union had two major concerns about the new act, which it believed should be ironed out in the initial stages.

"The Act says that educators will have to be licensed, and states that educators are only teachers, principals and paraprofessionals," said Mr. Charles.

"We find that a bit alarming because what happens to all the people at the Ministry? Are they not considered educators?

"In our proposal, we always insisted that everybody in education be licensed. It happens in other jurisdictions.

"Principals are evaluated by senior education officers, so surely they, too, should be licensed. We find it very disconcerting that the people who are responsible for education don't have to be licensed."

But Mr. Charles said he and his union colleagues also had a major concern that the Act did not stipulate that teachers would have to pass an exam or meet certain detailed criteria in order to be licensed.

The legislation proposed by Government merely states that educators in Bermuda must have a degree from a recognised college, and some initial teacher training, in order to be licensed.

But he said the union did not believe that was good enough.

"It seems that Bermuda is not going to have any licensing of its own," said Mr. Charles.

"According to this bill, once you graduate from a school you have a license to teach in Bermuda. From what we can see, this is not changing anything. That is how it is now.

"We always felt it made sense to grandfather the 800 teachers currently on the Island into the scheme, but we felt that there should be some kind of mechanism where they could be given a provisional licence until they proved they met the standards.

"Looking at this bill, there are no standards to meet. This is definitely something that should be looked at.

"The way it is proposed at the moment, this is merely going to be a register of teachers and principals. There should be an exam for teachers to pass."

But Mr. Charles said he believed implementing standards and exams and on-going training for groups of teachers, depending on the subjects they taught and the age of students they taught, would be easy.

He added: "We want stringent measures. They are easy to get. All states in the US have them. You can't be licensed in the US unless you take a state exam."

In response to Mr. Charles' concerns, Acting Chief Education Officer Alberta Dyer-Tucker said the issues would be considered at a later stage.

She said: "I spoke to Mr. Charles earlier and explained that the issues he raised, concerning examinations for teachers and inclusion of Ministry staff, are decisions that will be taken by the council once it is set up.

"The Act is essentially designed to establish the council. We would not expect the operational details to be set out in legislation."

Shadow Education Minister Tim Smith said Bermuda could not have quality education unless it prepared, licensed and hired the best teachers and paid them commensurate with their skills.

He said: "The proposed bill is flawed both in vision and content. I believe teachers and principals will be frustrated because the Bill adds to the bureaucracy and red tape.

"I believe the structure of the council will invite conflicts between teachers and principals. The Bill also fails to address teaching standards and offers no incentives to teachers who can demonstrate that they have what it takes to help students learn."

A headteacher, who did not wish to be named, said last night that she was fully behind the move to license teachers but believed there had to be some stringent measures and standards in place in order for the license to be worth anything.

However, she said she believed a written exam was not necessarily the answer as some perfectly able teachers were not good at exams, while some teachers were good on paper but lacked basic skills and common sense.

She said: "I agree with the union. There needs to be some standards to stipulate what Bermuda will accept and what it will not accept for a teacher to be licensed.

"And I very much think members of the Ministry of Education should be licensed. If teachers and principals are, why should they not be. We are all educating children."

The principal said she believed that as part of the licensing scheme, teachers fairly new to the job or new to the Island should be monitored for a two or three-year period by mentors and qualified trainers before they are allowed to be licensed.

And she said licensing should be repeated over the years, so teachers have to regularly re-apply and qualify for the license through on-going training.