education reform.

This was revealed yesterday in a letter sent to all PTAs, signed jointly by the Premier, and the Ministers of Education and Finance.

In the three-page letter Government also responded directly, for the first time, to concerns raised by 5,000 people last month in a petition against education cuts.

The letter is thought to be an effort by Government to show its commitment to education and to keep parents informed after some 1,000 parents, teachers, and students marched with the petition on Parliament to show their discontent with the public school system.

Parents made it clear then that they would not tolerate any cuts in the school system and they were not prepared to wait until 2002 to "see their children get a good education''.

And yesterday Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan, Education Minister the Hon.

Gerald Simons, and Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul addressed those issues in their letter.

"The children of Bermuda are, and must always be, our first priority,'' it stated.

But, they said Government decided against "excessive borrowing'' for "short-term contentment'' because "the very children we are all concerned about would have been burdened with this millstone as are future generations in other countries''.

They also said they believed reducing the Education Ministry's overall spending by one percent "could be achieved without compromising quality and standards in the classroom''.

Addressing parents concerns about education cuts one-by-one, they stressed that no teachers will be fired -- any staff reductions will be made through retirements, resignations and the non-renewal of contracts of overseas teachers; summer school programmes will not be cut; schools have enough textbooks to "meet the needs of every student''; and money is available for buying prizes and trophies.

But due to elimination of teachers' pay for supervising extracurricular activities, there was no assurance that such activities will continue in every school.

However, they said, "The principals have told us that many schools' extracurricular activities are continuing and, in some cases, have been increased''.

Turning to education reforms the MPs said "we are not prepared to jeopardise the education of today's students in favour of tomorrow's''.

But, they added, "we are doing everything possible to expedite plans so that actual construction can begin quickly''.

When Government revealed its new reform timetable and plans in February, Mr.

Simons said the "key to the success of the restructured system'' and the driving force behind the new schedule was the building of a senior secondary school at the old Devonshire Academy site at Prospect. Demolition has begun there and the new school is scheduled to be completed by early 1997. Berkeley Institute will be converted to a senior secondary school between 1997 and 1999.

Government's plans also include converting Northlands Secondary to a primary school and changing Dellwood Primary to a middle school in 1997.

And yesterday Mr. Simons said: "We're looking at the major construction starting two years down the road''.

"Now that the plan (new reform timetable) is defined we want to use that plan. But we want to do it faster than that.'' He said there was no "hard and fast'' earlier date that Government was aiming for at this point.

But, he said, since Government revealed the new plans project manager "Mr.

Earl Wood and others have been flushing out details of the plan''.

He also noted that many changes, which grew out of EPT recommendations, have taken place so far.