School over hiring practices.

Mrs. Jennifer Ingham, now head of the English department at Warwick Academy, applied for the post of senior English language and literature/drama teacher at BHS but was told she was not qualified.

Instead, the private all-girls' school renewed the contract of non-Bermudian Mrs. Janette LeNoury.

Mrs. Ingham, 37, a born Bermudian and BHS Old Girl who was educated in the British system, was told she was rejected because she did not have experience teaching at the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) level.

But she said she knows of a spouse of a Bermudian without GCSE experience who was hired by BHS, and understands through the Human Rights Commission that BHS has hired non-Bermudians without GCSE experience.

"If I was rejected for another Bermudian, then fair enough,'' Mrs. Ingham said. "If I didn't have the qualifications and experience, then maybe they'd have a case.'' But she feels BHS is comfortable with Mrs. LeNoury, who is well-liked, and wants to keep her on despite the fact she is non-Bermudian.

Mr. John (Jack) Wright, the former headmaster at BHS who recently stepped into the hiring controversy, has left the Island for the United States. His successor, Mrs. Eleanor Kingsbury, could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Wright told The Royal Gazette that Government hiring policies could spell "the death knell'' for private schools like BHS. Government was writing BHS and saying "you must take so and so'', he said.

Home Affairs Minister the Hon. Irving Pearman denied that charge, though he said his Ministry did "challenge an employer's reasons for rejecting a particular (Bermudian) applicant from time to time''.

He said Mr. Wright's comments seemed to be based on the assumption that Bermudians could not teach to the "high standards'' of private schools.

Mr. Wright released letters in which the Ministry said an application for a work permit had been refused, adding the name of a Bermudian who "could fill'' the position in question.

After completing her `O' levels at BHS in 1974, Mrs. Ingham completed her `A' levels at Malvern Girls' College in Worcestershire, England in 1976. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in History at the University of York in England in 1980 and a Bachelor of Education in History and English at Queen's University in Canada in 1981.

Since 1981, she has taught at Warwick Academy, where she has prepared students for the GCE (General Certificate of Education) exams which the GCSE replaced.

In a letter to Mrs. Ingham, BHS director of studies Ms Teresa Sousa said teaching GCE was not the same at teaching GCSE. "Britain changed the entire education system to comply with the requirements of GCSE because it was radically different from the GCE,'' she said.

And while Mrs. Ingham had experience teaching drama and producing plays, "it's not GCSE, which is a whole syllabus as well as production,'' Ms Sousa said.