As nearly as we can work out, only the Hon. Clarence Terceira who inherited a bad lot, perhaps the Hon. Gerald Simons who has already paid highly for it, and Dr. Marion Robinson, the Permanent Secretary for Education whose son went to Saltus Grammar School, and a very few other people who work with and for them. Every day the list of people who know what they are talking about and who are in opposition to the school grows and grows.

We have to wonder if it is sensible for any Government, much less one with a very slender majority, to continue with a major scheme and a huge expenditure which the people of a democratic society do not want. Surely the Government can hear the protests. Surely people like Gloria McPhee who protest make some dent. It takes a very arrogant Ministry of Education to hold fast and plough on with a plan which no-one, but no-one, outside the Ministry seems to want.

Surely the solution for Government is to accept the will of the people and admit that the education reform was undertaken with every good intention but has not found public acceptance, and then go to work on improving the present system. The huge amounts of money available for the mega school should be used to equalise the facilities and the teaching standards at three or four secondary schools and to provide a top technical school. There should also be every effort to provide special attention for those students who have academic and social problems.

Right now Government and the Ministry are defiantly moving ahead with a plan which scares the public. Naturally, those in charge of education are reluctant to admit defeat and back down at this late stage. But surely it is better to quit now and accept that the people do not want this school rather than spend the next ten years trying to make a bad idea work and then another ten years correcting the mistake.

The aims in creating the new system were admirable. The idea was to improve the chances of a usable education for all Bermudians. There was also a sincere intent to stop some Bermudians, largely black males, suffering early defeat in the present system. There was genuine concern that a disproportionate number of young black males were performing poorly in the schools and dropping out of the system and that something had to be done to help them.

The aims were good.

The solution was bad.

The solutions came about after a careful study by a large Education Planning Team set up by Mr. Simons with the hope that a big and varied team would ensure that the public supported the results of the study. But the Ministry did not follow the recommendation of the EPT that three senior secondry schools be established.

There seem to have been two other basic flaws. The "movers and shakers'' of Bermuda were disinterested in the whole process because they had no intention of putting their children in the public school system, no matter what.

Secondly, it seems that a decision might have been taken in advance and then certain educators encouraged people to come to their conclusion.

It may also be that the Ministry of Education made the mistake of seeking solutions in the wrong place and of going for help and advice to people who had problems of their own. We constantly hear that from the very beginning the Ministry was much more interested in bricks and mortar than in education philosophy. Then too, early on when the project could have been abandoned without undue embarrassment, Mr. Simons was much more interested in talking people around to his point of view than he was in listening to their protests.

The result was unhappiness from the beginning.

Bermuda chose a mega school at a time when there was general alarm over social problems and the inability to police large schools elsewhere.

Overseas comprehensive education was being questioned.

But, most of all, we chose this system at a time when it was becoming clear that the problems we wanted to solve were best dealt with in small schools with good support systems.

It is clear today that for all the right reasons Bermuda embarked on a new system which was unsuited to Bermuda and unpopular with Bermudians.

It is time to admit that.