Celebrating the BEST aspects of public education will be the focus of an education conference held later this month.

The Ministry of Education and Development will be hosting its 3rd Annual Education Conference/Expo on Friday, October 22 at 7 p.m., and on October 23rd at 12 noon at CedarBridge Academy.

The theme for the conference is ?Bringing out the BEST? and will celebrate the best aspects of public education.

Three educators working in overseas universities will be brought home to Bermuda for the conference by the Ministry of Education and include Dr. Lou Matthews from the University of South Carolina Upstate, Dr. Llewellyn Simmons from the University of Dayton in Ohio and Dr. Radell Tankard from Howard University in Washington D.C.

There will be over 20 different workshops with sessions for parents, teachers and students which are according to organisers, ?informative, interesting and interactive.?

Opening with a celebration of graduates of the public school system, participants will have the opportunity to award one of them with the BEST OBB Awards.

There are ten categories meaning ten public school graduates will receive OBB Award statuette for their contribution to the community.

The categories include education, community, business, tourism, culture, medicine, trades, overcoming obstacles and two awards that focus on students.

Persons are asked to nominate individuals who graduated between 2000 and 2004 and are role models in the community. The Student?s Choice Award calls for nominations of individuals that others may feel are the most appropriate selection for the category.

The weekend concludes on Saturday with the Education Conference. Keeping with the theme of bringing out the BEST the Education Ministry said a variety of workshops will be conducted to stress how to be the best student, parent, or teacher.

Dr. Derek Tully from Clearwater Middle School, Dr. Melvyn Bassett and Dr. Glenn Bascome from Sandys Middle School are also slated to participate.

Throughout the day a Kids Zone will operate to allow children to play and have fun on their own. A vendor display area will also allow participants to gather information on community education programmes and to purchase resources to help with children?s education.

Collection boxes and nomination forms are available for the OBB BEST awards at the Ministry of Education and Development offices at Dundonald Place next to the Olympic Club, the Bishop Spencer Complex on Glebe Road, all public school systems on the Island and at various locations around Hamilton including the General Post Office, Ricky?s Barber Shop, and at a variety of gas stations, video stores, and other outlets.

Tickets for the day can be obtained from the Ministry of Education at 278-3300.