The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education has been moved to another role in Government — less than two weeks after apparently being promoted to the position.

Ellen-Kate Horton, sister of Education Minister Randy Horton, is understood to be bewildered by the sudden decision to move her to the Cabinet Office to be Assistant Secretary with responsibility for the civil service.

The former maths teacher and deputy principal, who had been acting Permanent Secretary at Education since August, confirmed the move last night but would not comment on the decision.

Dr. Radell Tankard, a certification officer at the Ministry of Education, has been appointed acting PS for the next three months.

He is the third acting PS to be appointed since last May when Rosemary Tyrrell was "reassigned" to the Ministry of Justice after a damning review of the public education system was published.

Ms Tyrrell had been Permanent Secretary for Education for less than 18 months.

Sources have told this newspaper that Ms Horton is not happy with her move and does not know the reasons for the sudden change.

One source said: "She's annoyed, I guess, that they are making all these moves without any rhyme or reason. I think she's pretty upset about the whole thing."

Another source said mother-of-one Ms Horton felt she was making serious inroads into implementing the reforms in public schools recommended by UK professor David Hopkins and his team in their highly critical review of the system. "She enjoyed the move to education," they said.

Government issued a press release to the media on December 21 announcing the permanent secretaries to the Ministers following the post-election Cabinet reshuffle. Ms Horton was listed on that as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education.

It was not possible to find out the reason for the about-face from Government yesterday.

Kenneth Dill, head of the civil service, announced the changes in a press release issued by the Department of Communication and Information but when The Royal Gazette tried to reach him by telephone we were told he was on vacation until Monday. Ms Horton is acting head of the civil service in his absence.

Her appointment to acting Education PS last summer attracted controversy, with the Bermuda Union of Teachers (BUT) speaking out against it.

A press conference was called by Bermuda Public Services Union during which Ms Horton said that her brother being Minister did not create a conflict of interest and that she would "fulfil this role to the best of my abilities".

Ms Horton began her teaching career at Warwick Secondary School in 1971 where she eventually headed up the maths department.

She has also been president of the BUT, education officer for mathematics at the Ministry of Education and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Community and Cultural Affairs.