public credibility, the head of the teachers' union said yesterday.

Mr. Milton Scott, organiser and chief executive officer of the 700-member Amalgamated Bermuda Union of Teachers, said the Hon. Gerald Simons "must get in there and convince'' Cabinet to restore the $2.2 million in Education Ministry cuts for the coming school year.

"If he can't convince them, his role as a minister has been significantly compromised,'' Mr. Scott told The Royal Gazette .

"We feel that if the cuts are implemented, they have serious ramifications for education,'' he added. "We need to keep all the staff we've got.

"It's all the areas he's cut; it's not just the cuts to staff.'' The reductions for the school year, which begins in September, represent 4.7 percent of the 1991-92 Education Ministry budget.

They include: about 25 teaching jobs, which the Ministry plans to cut through attrition; a 50 percent cut in the budget for school textbooks; teachers' pay for supervising extracurricular activities; teachers' pay for attending overseas conferences and workshops; an 80 percent reduction in grants for special purchases such as prizes and trophies at maintained schools; and elimination of summer school.

Mr. Simons was off the Island and unavailable for comment yesterday, but Permanent Secretary for Education Dr. Marion Robinson said: "What we have tried do is to effect the cuts without compromising the quality of our educational programmes.'' Student enrolment has dropped in recent years, but "we have not always reduced teaching numbers accordingly,'' she said. "It's a fact that there is a considerable amount of fat in our staffing allocations.'' Still, cuts are to be made through attrition, and "teachers do not need to be concerned about job security,'' Dr. Robinson told The Royal Gazette .

A top priority, for which summer school was sacrificed, was "to maintain the integrity of the school day -- that means that we must have a teacher in front of the class throughout the day,'' she said.

For the coming year, schools have the textbooks they require, and funds should only be needed for replacement texts, she said.

Mr. Scott said teachers were prepared to meet with Parent-Teacher Associations, community groups, and others to explain why the cuts must be stopped. And while he would not specify what other action might be taken, he said: "We are prepared to let the public know that these cuts are not in the best interests of education.'' Government must restore the proposed cuts "very soon,'' he said. PHOTO Mr.

Milton Scott.