children, Education Minister the Hon.

Clarence Terceira said yesterday.

Dr. Terceira said he is awaiting a report from Ministry education officers about a revamped "Time Out'' programme for disruptive students.

The Minister made his remarks in response to a call from the Bermuda Union of Teachers for an "alternative school setting'' where "hard core'' students would be placed until "they are able to behave in an acceptable manner''.

The BUT said that as much as 30 percent of classroom time is spent dealing with discipline problems.

In an earlier brief to Cabinet, Bermuda's school principals also asked for alternative schooling.

A Time Out programme was tried and abandoned about four years ago, but it had certain weaknesses and the students' behaviour was not improving, Dr. Terceira said.

"I have asked the Ministry to look at this again,'' he said. "If it didn't work under the environment they used, it may be that it can work under a different system.

"It is an expensive thing, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do, regardless of the expense.'' Under the old Time Out system, unruly students were sent to the Department of Education, instead of to school, he said. "I don't think that was adequate.

You need a place away from the department, with a good environment and suitable, trained teachers who can really zero in on these children and their behaviour.'' Another flaw with the old system was that the "time outs'' could only last up to five days at at time. "It probably was not long enough for a Time Out programme to be effective. There's more time needed than that.'' In a prepared statement, BUT general secretary Sen. Milton Scott said: "Bermuda is faced with an ever-increasing number of students who have little desire to learn in our traditional schools.

"Teachers and administrators have identified a hard core of disruptive students that negatively impact upon the students who want to learn.'' As well as an alternative setting, disruptive students need "far more technological options,'' Sen. Scott said.

Dr. Terceira said there were "two schools of thought'' about alternative education. Some felt students should be kept in regular schools "if at all possible.'' Bad students Others felt they should be removed "immediately, so the others can get on with their learning.'' He took a "third view,'' which was "maybe you should use both.'' While the Ministry was looking again at Time Out, it was concentrating on assuring teachers were "better-equipped'' to handle problem students, he said.

The Lions Quest life skills programmes were offered in Primary 1-4 and Primary 7 and would be introduced to Primary 5 and 6 in September.

And with the help of the Coalition for the Protection of Children, the Ministry had introduced a peer mediation programme in nine schools aimed at "preventing...disagreements from becoming serious and resulting perhaps in violence.'' The Ministry was also offering "behaviour management workshops'' for teachers.

"They've increased in number as society seems to have deteriorated,'' Dr.

Terceira said. "You could get a half dozen in a school of 250 or 300, and even though it is a small number, these hard core ones can cause quite a lot of problems.'' The BUT and Dr. Terceira agreed that behaviour problems in school often stemmed from problems in the home.