Prospect and any opening of the school is at least two years away. The Bermuda Union of Teachers, quite correctly we think, is not supporting the hiring of a foreign head teacher for the 1,200 pupil school. The teachers' union argues that two years is ample time to allow a Bermudian principal to be attached to a comparable school abroad in preparation for taking on Bermuda's own mega school.

There is a pool of experienced Government secondary school principals in Bermuda. Some of them, like Mr. Dale Butler, have had great success in controlling difficult schools. True, those schools have not been as large as the proposed school but they have been difficult. Mr. Butler comes to mind because he had success with St. George's Secondary School which had real similarities in student body with the proposed mega school.

We have serious doubts that today a non-Bermudian will be able to achieve any respect or any control in order to operate a large Bermudian school.

There is also a group of one-time head teachers at the Ministry of Education who will, presumably, be available for duties once we have only two secondary schools to supervise. Under similar circumstances where Bermudians are available the Department of Immigration would never allow anyone in the private sector to import a non-Bermudian top person. We must guard against a system where there is one standard for Government and another for the people.

The mega school's hand picked interim board of governors, which is supposed to choose a head for this highly unpopular Prospect school, already knows that the head teacher is likely to come from abroad so it is prepared for years of row. Probably the board will embark on a talent search in Canada since Bermuda adopted the mega school concept from Canada where it was in disrepute. If no Bermudian is to be sent abroad to train in large schools, we can only wonder if this person from abroad will be taught to deal with the vagaries of the Ministry of Education and the expectations of Bermudians.

Shadow Education Minister Miss Jennifer Smith, who is now looked upon as one of the very few politicians making sense about education in Bermuda, has said it is wrong to assume that there are no qualified Bermudians. Miss Smith is quoted as saying that we should draw up a job description and look for suitable Bermudian candidates both here and abroad. In other words, Miss Smith wants to get it right and put the horse before the cart.

"To have the Education Ministry itself overlook Bermudians certainly justifies feelings young people have about alienation in school,'' Miss Smith has said.

We think Miss Smith is correct. We are not yet settled on what this school is going to be, but we have already decided that it cannot in the first instance be run by a Bermudian.

In the end we think a Bermudian is likely to be appointed the first head teacher simply because Bermuda is Bermuda and the row is just beginning but at least some people will have had some free trips to look for a non-Bermudian head teacher. There were a good many free trips to look at schools too and that result is still unhappy.

But then before we ever get that far, the Minister is likely to be changed and, who knows, the public may well be rid of the school just about no one wants. There is still time not to set public education in Bermuda back for 20 years.