The closure of CedarBridge Academy due to potentially deadly mould plunged the country into a ?national crisis?, Education Minister Randy Horton admitted to MPs yesterday.

Mr. Horton, revealing the names of an independent panel set up to probe how the affair was handled, told the House of Assembly: ?We have experienced a national crisis. We need to find out what precipitated the event. We need to find out what happened but, more importantly, to make sure that it does not happen again.?

Mr. Horton, who closed the Island?s largest public school on November 1 after a number of teachers were taken ill due to mould, said: ?There have already been lessons learned for CedarBridge Academy, for the Ministry of Education and Sports and for the country as a whole.?

CedarBridge?s 850-plus pupils are currently being schooled in the old Berkeley Institute building and at Bermuda College. Mr. Horton said: ? We anticipate that the students will recommence their studies in January 2007 at the CedarBridge Academy campus.?

The inquiry panel set up by the Minister will be chaired by Dr. Kamoji Wachiira, a Kenyan who has worked as a senior environmental specialist for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). He is currently a senior fellow at the Consensus Building Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The two other members will be Walton Brown, president of Research Innovations, and William Medeiros, vice-president and general manager of the Freiesenbruch-Meyer group and a retired Bermuda Regiment major.

Mr. Horton said: ?The findings of the review will remain confidential until completed. In other words, the panel members are not expected to speak on the matter to the media or, indeed, to any other individual or group during the review.

?That is important, because we wish to maintain the integrity of the process. I said that the review would be independent and I want to remain faithful to that commitment.?

He said the panel would begin collecting data in January and that their review should be completed within six to eight weeks.

Mr. Horton added that he had set three criteria for the review: that it be independent, thorough and conducted speedily. He told MPs that mitigation work to clear CedarBridge of the mould - which includes the potentially harmful fungus aspergillus versicolor - was continuing and air testing was being done.

?The contents of all rooms and all room surfaces are being thoroughly cleaned,? he said. ?Carpet is being removed and replaced by tile. Air ducts are being cleaned and air scrubbers installed as needed in the ventilation system.?

This newspaper revealed last month that US specialists advised the school in July to spend the summer cleaning up the mould. And two weeks ago, we uncovered documents showing that Chief Health Officer Dr. John Cann was aware of the mould problem and a teacher?s illness caused by it in March 2005.

Mr. Horton himself disclosed last week that CedarBridge principal Kalmar Richards and the school?s board of governors first received a complaint about mould four years ago.

The Minister said yesterday that the inquiry panel?s mandate was to establish the basic facts and history of the mould and air quality problems at the school.

He added: ?The panel is also charged with identifying an integrated sequence of the actions taken by CedarBridge Academy, the Ministry of Education, Sports and Recreation and other relevant parties to rectify the mould problem?.