Plans by Bermuda Broadcasting Company to launch a televised US high school equivalency diploma programme next week may have hit a snag.

The Royal Gazette understands that the programme -- which Bermuda stopped administering this summer after receiving a directive from GED officials in Washington D.C. -- cannot be offered in countries with no US base or embassy.

The US ended its 54-year presence in Bermuda last week.

But GED officials said they decided to close all international testing centres because of a decline in enrolment. And director of data and scoring services at the National GED Office in Washington D.C. Ms Alice Marable yesterday said the programme could only be administered by an official testing centre.

Some countries had the June 30 deadline extended until August 30 for their convenience, Ms Marable said. "But now we only test, upon requests, Canadians and US citizens living in a foreign country where there are US bases or embassies.'' As a result of that the Adult Education School has ceased offering the programme.

And Associate Dean of Academic Services at the Bermuda College Mrs. Sheridan Talbot said the college -- which was used as a testing centre since 1978 -- held its last tests on June 30.

Mrs. Talbot said officials in Washington suggested that Bermuda look at developing its own GED programme. But she said that would take "some time'' to set up and receive accreditation. "Our role was simply to administer the GED.'' But over the last few weeks BBC has been aggressively advertising a plan revive the programme. It has urged anyone interested to contact the station before next week's launching, for information on signing up for the programme and obtaining course materials.

On Tuesday, one of BBC's radio stations also quoted course prices. And yesterday BBC CEO Mr. Rick Richardson said the station had received more than 100 applications. He said talks were being held between officials at the National GED Office in Washington D.C., BBC and the Education Ministry to resume the exam. And the station was "monitoring'' the situation. But when asked how the station was able to administer the exam, Mr. Richardson declined to comment.

But Ms Marable said: "They (BBC) cannot issue the GED. They can have a GED programme where they are able to provide tutoring and preparation materials for those interested in taking the GED. But they cannot administer the test.'' The Royal Gazette understands that even if the programme is run via BBC, it most likely will not begin next week as advertised.

Education Minister the Hon. Jerome Dill could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But Education Permanent Secretary Dr. Marion Robinson said she has only had a preliminary meeting with Mr. Richardson.

"There is a lot more information that we need and Mr. Richardson needs before we can begin to proceed on anything like this,'' Dr. Robinson said, adding that she planned to have a follow-up meeting with him in the next couple of days.

And former Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira said the Ministry was more interested in trying to raise the public school system's standards.

"Then people would not drop out and need the GED. Unfortunately there are people who have dropped out and later realised they needed to complete their high school education.'' In order to write the GED exam, one needs to be over 18 and have had been out of school for more than a year.

Dr. Terceira said he received a letter from Mr. Richardson last month informing him that GED officials in the US would not allow the exam to be administered unless the Education Ministry was willing to take on that responsibility.

When he left the post, Dr. Terceira added, no decision had been made. Both Dr.

Robinson and senior education officer Dr. Joseph Christopher were off the Island at the time.

"We recognised that there are a lot of people who need it,'' Dr. Terceira said. "But the Ministry's aim is that in time we will have no need for the test and will not have people dropping out and sitting one the wall if restructuring continues as planned and there are no radical changes (to Government's restructuring plans). But if there are (changes to Government's plans), we can say goodbye to that.''