A 16-year-old Berkeley Institute student's attempts to take the two courses necessary for her to get into university have been fruitless after the school put her in a Spanish class with no teacher.

Her mother, Hiltileen Burch this week wrote a Letter to the Editor and spoke to the newspaper about her frustrations with the school.

At the start of the school year her daughter complained that she had not been assigned a foreign language class.

Instead, she had been told to choose between taking Business GCSE year two or her third year Spanish course.

But this option was unreasonable, Mrs. Burch said, because her daughter needed both to go to university and complained to the school.

Subsequently her schedule was changed and she was placed in a Spanish class ? or so she thought.

"About a week later she came home and told me the Spanish teacher had come to her classroom and informed the students that she was not going to teach them because she was 'over-booked' in her lessons and was using their Spanish class as her free period to prepare for her classes," she said. Horrified, she later found out that this teacher had never returned to the class and left the students unsupervised for a further double period.

Furious at the school's irresponsibility, Mrs. Burch called the school and complained.

She was assured that the students were no longer unsupervised.

Mrs. Burch assumed the school had found a replacement Spanish teacher, but later found out that this substitute was not a Spanish teacher and simply told the students to read a book or do homework.

"For five weeks these children sat in a class with a substitute teacher who did not teach them anything," she said.

Mrs. Burch was told the school was trying to secure another teacher and her daughter was urged to change to another course.

"She decided to wait for a new teacher because she needs the two classes to get into university," she said.

When she decided to attend one of these "Spanish classes" she was informed by the acting principal that the school had been unsuccessful in hiring another teacher as they had no money and no credits would be given if there was no class.

Mrs. Burch met with the Minister of Education and Development Terry Lister who told her to speak to the chairman of the Board of Governors, Calvin White, as the school was an aided-school and this was considered an "internal matter".

She met with Mr. White who apologised for the way the situation was handled and promised the school would do all it could to obtain a teacher.

However on November 1, Mrs. Burch received a letter from Mr. White which read in totality: "On behalf of the Board of Governors as well as the administration of the school, I regret that the school is not in a position this term to offer your daughter... the Spanish class that was originally planned."

"You will be aware from our meeting as well as from our telephone conversations that we have left no stone unturned in an effort to secure a qualified and trained teacher who might be able to offer such classes. These efforts have included approaching retired teachers of Spanish directly as well as through private language schools on the Island."

"Through this latter source, we have identified a person who is an instructor but possesses no teaching qualification in Spanish or any other discipline. To engage such a person or even to pay to send your child to such a 'teacher' would be totally contrary to the standards required of Berkeley, the Ministry of Education and the Bermuda Union of Teachers."

Mr. White ended the letter by saying: "All these efforts have proved fruitless though we are still attempting to source an appropriate level of Spanish instruction that might be available online."