pause and take a hard look at creating an education system which suits Bermuda rather than creating a second-rate copy of an overseas system.

We think some things were very clear from the long debate over the Education Planning Team's proposals to change Bermuda's system.

Bermudians are frightened of a mega secondary school at Prospect. Bermudians fear that no-one will be able to run such a school well and that rather than solving our education problems, the school will create a greater problem. We think it was the single school concept which brought the whole plan into disrepute.

The new Minister has a chance to go back to three schools if he works sensibly with Warwick Academy.

Rightly or wrongly, the Ministry of Education is not looked upon favourably by just about anyone. To regain public confidence the Minister will have to make extensive changes at the Ministry before the public will respond.

The public wants a tough system with high standards and wants to be proud of the way we educate our children. People do not want a system which encourages further flight abroad. A mega school will mean increased applications to the private schools and further efforts and greater expenditure to send students abroad. The result will be a defeated mega school which will not have a student body representative of Bermuda's young people.

It may well be that rather than spend uncounted millions on a mega school, Government should follow its own ideas of privatisation and entrust secondary education to the private schools. Savings on teachers, plant and the Ministry would provide plenty of cash.

It would probably also be wise to take a hard look at the schedules of schools.

Long school summer holidays were necessary for farming economies so that children could help reap the harvest. Mid-afternoon was a good time to send children home to home-maker mothers in time to help with the barnyard chores.

Is that relevant to Bermuda today? Today's mothers are at their jobs in the afternoon and in the summer. Mothers who have to earn a living should not start with the handicap of unrealistic school hours. The schools schedule is no longer realistic for today's life and should be changed to accommodate the public.

The United States has school systems which ask teachers to work 50 weeks a year. Some banks in North America are now opening so that you can bank before and after work.

The schools debate made it clear that working mothers also need properly supervised neighbourhood pre-school care from such hours as 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. That's what keeping a job in Bermuda today requires. Parents also need not to worry where their kids are after school or who is going to look after them summers, Christmas and Spring vacation. They also need to know that schools will not close at every little excuse or on someone's whim.

Slack school systems with endless time-off and a curriculum made easy for teachers do nothing except cheat the students. Today's complex world requires that we provide more and higher education, not less. We constantly hear that there is "no time'' in the schools for all sorts of beneficial projects.

There is plenty of time in the summer and in the afternoon but teachers ask for it to be wasted.