The Education Ministry is not responsible for educating students who are expelled, even if they are younger than 16, Education and Human Affairs Minister Jerome Dill said yesterday.

But children are only expelled from school as a last resort, Mr. Dill said during Parliamentary Questions in the House of Assembly.

"In light of the fact the school-leaving age by law is 16, how can the Ministry justify expelling children under the age of 16 and not taking responsibility for those children?'' asked Shadow Health and Social Services Minister Ms Renee Webb.

Although the Education Act says the Education Ministry is responsible for educating children up to age 16, the Act must be read in conjunction with the Education Rules 1974, Mr. Dill said.

Those rules "make it absolutely crystal clear that in the event a child under the age of 16 is expelled, the Ministry of Education's responsibility comes to an end'', he said.

But Mr. Dill said expulsion was considered "only in the most serious cases'', when all other options had been exhausted. And parents have the right to appeal an expulsion to the Minister, he said.

Asked by Shadow Education Minister Ms Jennifer Smith that a number of children under 16 who were not expelled were "asked to leave school,'' and whether the Ministry took responsibility for those students, Mr. Dill said he did not understand the question.

In response to another question from Ms Smith, Mr. Dill said an "enrichment'' programme would be piloted in two primary schools in September of 1996.

Ms Smith wanted to know if the Ministry had reneged on a promise she said was made in the House of Assembly by a previous Education Minister to introduce a programme for gifted students.

"The Ministry had not reneged on any promise,'' Mr. Dill said. The Ministry had "always referred to this programme as an enrichment programme rather than a programme for gifted children''.

That was because the Ministry believed all students had a variety of abilities and the priority should be on "provision of appropriate educational experiences for all students rather than on the identification of gifted students''.

Mr. Dill said the enrichment programme would include learning outside the classroom.

In response to a third question, Mr. Dill said the Woodlands School site would serve two main purposes.

It would provide offices for seven educational therapists currently housed in a single classroom at Devon Lane School and space for therapists to instruct "a small group of students who have been withdrawn from their regular schools''.

Secondly, four classrooms at Woodlands would accommodate classes from Northlands Secondary School and ease congestion there.

It was not true that Government had retreated from having an alternative school at Woodlands, as demonstrated by the first use, he said.