assistants will bring back to public attention the question of including special needs children in a regular classroom setting. In theory inclusion fosters the self-esteem of special needs children and does not disrupt the class because teaching assistants are assigned to the children.

We all know that children adapt more readily than adults so the inclusion of special needs children in the classes may not bother them at all but clearly it is creating a bother for teachers.

In order for the system to work without distracting the teachers from the rest of the class the assistants have to be capable. Teachers are complaining that some of the assistants lack basic skills.

This inclusion is a controversial step to start with. It seems that some teachers feel inclusion was thrust on them without proper planning and that may well be creating some resentment. It would have been reasonable to assume that the Department of Education would have been certain that the teaching assistants were up to their job and properly trained.

A generation ago parents quite rightly demanded special education facilities for their children. Like many other places, Bermuda provided special schools.

Some educators and some parents then began to demand the further equality of having that special education within the mainstream of the schools system so that children were not excluded in any way. There were, however, parents who preferred the special schools and did not want their children to be a classroom experiment.

In the face of predictions that this system would slow the entire class to the needs of special students, the educational dilemma was to provide for special needs while not disrupting the class. It seemed to some people that the Ministry of Education was committed to inclusion more than it was committed to education. The answer was teaching assistants within the classroom framework.

There are still doubts as to whether or not the system will work. Certainly it is doomed if staffed by ill-prepared assistants.

The public must be questioning why there are seemingly endless problems in education. We think some problems are to be expected because they stem from the uncertainties created when a system is in transition. Bermuda's education is going through the middle stages of a major overhaul. But there does seem to be an element of failure in the Department of Education which does not seem to be able to get things right.

However we have to ask if there is another factor here. During the Saul Administration the Government was seen as wounded. We must wonder if there are elements in the Civil Service which sought to deepen that wound.