Parliamentary officials may have to review the amount of time allocated to debate the budget of Government's second largest Ministry.

This was suggested on Wednesday after neither Education Minister Jerome Dill nor Shadow Education Minister Jennifer Smith completed their presentations during the four hours allotted.

And none of the other dozen or so members in the chambers were able to address the issue.

Despite Mr. Dill dominating the discussion for two hours and 45 minutes, he was unable to get to his notes on the Bermuda College.

"I will have to hold a Press conference on what is happening there,'' he said as he took his seat at 2.35 p.m.

Prior to doing so, Mr. Dill "unveiled'' a guide, entitled Literacy vs.

Illiteracy, produced by principals to combat the growing problem in Bermuda.

The plan calls for the use of the media to promote literacy, a national literacy campaign to kick off a year of literacy, making reading the number one course on the school timetable, and the formation of a coalition to spearhead the plan.

Mr. Dill said before June, principals will ensure that all class teachers read to their students every day, review what teachers are reading to students, declare a one month school literacy month, and provide and participate in professional development in literacy.

Meanwhile, the Ministry will evaluate the implementation of the Reading Recovery programme, appoint an education officer responsible for reading, develop instruments to measure the progress of reading, and hold roundtable discussions with primary teachers and review all primary one and primary two programmes.

"Parents need to get involved in their children's learning from birth,'' he stressed. "Many times we wait until the child is seven, eight or nine and then get involved. We as parents and as a community need to get involved at birth.'' Mr. Dill also revealed that the first year of the senior school curriculum had been completed and teachers plan to begin reviewing the primary school curriculum.

He explained education reform started at the senior level first because of the need to introduce middle schools.

While the Opposition Leader agreed that Government was meeting its responsibility as set out in the education budget objective -- "to ensure that the youth of Bermuda receive adequate educational opportunities'', she noted the word adequate was not synonymous with excellence.

"That is where Government and Bermudians part company,'' she said.

"Bermudians want the best for their children.

"There is a gap between what Government say they are doing in education and what students need.'' She stressed that students needed to be assured that there was a place for them in the community, and a "connection'' between their need to equip themselves and their upward mobility in their chosen field.

"We're talking about providing those services in the education system that students need in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered,'' she continued. "Government often says they are providing those opportunities, but first young people have to see it.'' Ms Smith said she would not bother to repeat what she has been suggesting to the Education Ministry for years.

Maybe Government would understand if it came from "distinguished'' business people, she added.

Referring to a roundtable discussion on education published in the Bermudian Business magazine's winter issue, Ms Smith noted that Bank of Bermuda president Henry Smith said the Island's overall standard of education was "not bad, but it's not good enough''.

"He says the workforce must be of a global standard so Bermuda has to do better than average,'' she said, "so Bermuda has quite a way to go.'' She also pointed out that Mutual Risk Management CEO Robert Mulderig said: "I agree the system here is pretty good, but needs to be a lot better. As a Bermuda company that operates internationally, such as Mutual Risk, we look at the education system in two ways. First, we need the educational system here to produce employees for us. Secondly, where we can't find employees locally and we need to bring people in from abroad, we need to educate their children.

I see problems in both those areas right now.'' Ms Smith also noted that while the executives agreed that much money was being spent on upgrading school's physical plants, motivation and self-esteem -- which affect a youngster's learning -- was being overlooked.

With Mr. Mulderig admitting that he did not know of even ten Bermudian males who entered the international business sector in the past year, she stressed many Bermudian students felt alienated from that sector.

"What happened in this system that is so successful that we are failing to supply Bermudians in this area?'' she asked.

However, Ms Smith admitted that despite obstacles and bad publicity, many of Bermuda's students continued to do well.

And she praised Northlands Primary's Girls of Colour Club for donating of funds to allow special students to go to Windreach Farm in Canada; Warwick Academy's Alesha De La Chevotiere for making and selling Christmas cards to raise money for Agape House, Warwick Academy's "Positive Discipline'' award programme, schools which held read-ins, and Youth Net.

While noting Youth Net had 61 mentors, Ms Smith said the majority of them were female. And since it was serving a majority of male students, more male mentors were needed.

She also asked what had come of the EPT Action eight team's five-point plan to eradicate illiteracy.

"No one should have been shocked when they learned that there was a problem with literacy,'' Ms Smith said. "But they should have been shocked that it had not changed.

"We have often said there is a need to have some statistics on this problem so we can measure whether we are effectively countering the problem.'' Ms Smith also called on the Ministry to compile figures on illiteracy; to show what programmes are in place at each level of the school system to ensure literacy; and explain what will happen to Year Six CedarBridge students who do not receive the required grades in the Bermuda Secondary School Certificate programme.