Berkeley Institute will scrap its admissions exam and take in 90 randomly selected students in September.

This was disclosed yesterday at a Press conference outlining the transfer of middle school students to secondary schools.

The transfer affects some 360 students in Government's five middle schools.

Ninety of the students, mainly 14-year-olds, will go to Berkeley, while 270 will enter CedarBridge Academy.

"Because of concerns with respect to overpopulation at the CedarBridge site, the Ministry, in consultation with both Berkeley and CedarBridge, has decided that the transferring students be shared between Berkeley Institute and CedarBridge,'' Education Minister Jerome Dill said.

"...In order to ensure that each school is assigned students with a similar range of levels of achievement, it has been determined that the students should be placed in bands based on prior achievement and that students should be randomly selected, via computer, from these bands so that each school receives equal proportions of students from each band.'' Language arts scores achieved by students in the Bermuda Secondary School Certificate June 1997 assessments will be used to assign students to each of three achievement bands, Mr. Dill said.

However, he refused to disclose the method used to determine which students fell in the top 25-percent band, average 50-percent band, and lower 25-percent band.

"At the end of the day, we are keen not to stigmatise any of our students,'' Mr. Dill said, adding parents will receive explanations.

Parents should also learn, within a few days from middle schools, to which senior school their child has been assigned.

"The reality is, at the end of the day, this new selection process is the purest form of democracy, designed to give every student an equal chance,'' Mr. Dill said. "That is our goal. That is our obligation.'' He said the entire selection process will be reviewed again next year.

"I believe we are on the brink of a very important time in education...,'' he added. "1998 will be a very important year for education, particularly for Berkeley Institute.'' Chairman of Berkeley's Board of Governors, Calvin White, said while the school will be able to accommodate the 90 new students, extensive work needed to be carried out within a specific timeframe to prepare Berkeley for the restructured system.