to us to miss the entire point of a college education. The function of a college is academics. If there is no standard, there is no meaningful education.

It seems to us that Dr. Archibald Hallett's great gift to Bermuda was in leading Bermuda College to high standards that are recognised by good institutions overseas. When Bermuda College was created there were many people who assumed that a local institution would be inferior. Under Dr. Hallett's leadership we were proven wrong. Archie Hallett guided the college to international standards of excellence which give our students, after two years at Bermuda College, entree to stop schools. Would we have it any other way for Bermudians? We think not. If we lower the college standards, we will forfeit the international recognition of which we can be proud.

We think that the development of Bermuda College with high standards is one of the major achievements of this Country in recent years. Because Bermuda is peopled by critics of education, we too often overlook real achievement in favour of criticism. We should, as a Country, be getting behind Bermuda College and not engaging in the public acrimony which can only discourage those people who try so hard for college excellence.

For too long young Bermudians have had their expectations dashed by being encouraged to attend inferior institutions of "higher learning'' overseas which failed them. Bermudians sometimes choose colleges abroad which do not provide the standards Bermuda College provides. They are then discouraged when they return home because they have spent their time and someone's money on meaningless degrees which did not mean they had received an education.

We think the problem of young Bermudians being left behind is not Bermuda College. The College does its job well. The problem arises because we have not provided education and training for those who do not want to go to college or who should not attend college. The truth is that not everyone can be prepared for college and we do not provide an alternative.

We agree with Dr. Norma Hendrickson and Sister Judith Rollo on the importance of technical programmes to Bermuda both for training and retraining. Bermuda has a history of successful technical programmes once supplied by the Royal Naval Dockyard and later by the Bermuda Technical Institute which produced many solid, well trained and successful Bermudians.

Like America, Bermuda abandoned that system and it was a mistake. Europe is now showing everyone, including the United States, the importance of training people so that they can earn a good living.

There should be in any country the availability to learn skills that are between high school and college. It was noted in the United States recently that if we do not do that, we produce young people without training who are condemned to making hamburgers. We need to produce young people who are equipped to fill the daily needs of the Country and who can earn a good living at jobs which do not require an academic college education. We also need to offer the opportunity to those people who have not had the opportunity in the past.

Bermuda has not been alone in assuming, as the United States did, that the existence of college was enough. We must work to correct that without damaging the Bermuda College. Tearing down academic education is regressive and will prepare no-one. We should have both a good college and good technical learning, realising that in many areas they will overlap. Bermuda already does that with hotel technology and it should not be too big a step to implement it in other areas. We should be as keen to produce good mechanics as we are to produce good academics. We are already half way there.