By Paul Egan As work begins on a $40-million senior secondary school at Prospect, parents are expressing little confidence in the restructuring of Bermuda's education system.

And Shadow Education Minister Ms Jennifer Smith said it was "backwards'' for school construction to be under way while the new curriculum was still being developed.

"How one could build a school without knowing what you're going to teach in it, I don't know,'' Ms Smith said yesterday.

But Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira said he remains confident the restructuring is on track. "I have tremendous faith in what's being done,'' Dr. Terceira said. "Before we decided on all this we had a great primary system, but we were losing kids when they got to secondary school -- they were falling through the cracks.

"Something had to be done.'' Prospect -- which along with Berkeley Institute is to be one of two senior secondary schools on the Island -- is set to open its doors in September of 1997. Government is also introducing middle schools, doing away with secondary schools entrance exams, and adding a 13th year of schooling.

In a random survey this week, about one out of every two parents The Royal Gazette stopped on the street said their children were either already in private schools or would soon be moving to them from the public school system.

"I'm for the middle schools, but not the big high school,'' said Miss Karen Tacklyn, who has a ten-year-old and a two-year-old. "It will be a whole lot of trouble,'' with more drugs and other problems, she said. "If I could afford to put my children in private schools, I would.'' Parents not happy about new school Miss Tacklyn described the school at Prospect -- designed to accommodate between 850 and 1,250 students and to incorporate crafts and technologies along with academic courses -- as "a big jail'' for children. "Why do you think they are building it (near Police headquarters) at Prospect?'' she asked.

"I'm a bit concerned about (the changes), but it is not as if I have a choice,'' said Mrs. Kathy Darrell, who has a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old in the public system.

At Prospect, "the quiet kids are going to have to be more aggressive, or they will just become a number,'' Mrs. Darrell said.

Not all parents held a negative view. Mrs. Beryl Newton, who has a son at Northlands and a daughter doing "very well' at university after graduating from the public system, said: "I believe if they go to school and pay attention to the teachers, they will get something out of it.

"I believe the education system is good and the Bermuda College is good because when my daughter was ready for university, she was able to transfer most of her college credits and begin university in her second year.'' Parents who blamed Government for drugs and other problems sometimes did not act as role models, Mrs. Newton said.

But like many parents, she did not favour putting the bulk of students in one senior secondary school. "Some children are more academically inclined than others, and some simply will not learn,'' she said.

Ms Smith of the Opposition Progressive Labour Party said she did not think any parent could have faith in a school system when they did not know what their child would learn. Apparently, "we won't know the curriculum until the school is built'', she said.

Parents' response has been "to desert the public school system'', she said.

Instead, "everyone, whether or not they have children, needs to be concerned'', Ms Smith said. "There needs to be a far greater outcry on behalf of the public about what is going on in education.'' Ms Smith said the 1987 report of the Education Planning Team had answers to many problems in the schools, including drugs, but it has been largely ignored.

The Shadow Education Minister also said she was "extremely concerned'' by Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira's statement that he would like to see Prospect with a largely autonomous board run in a fashion similar to Bermuda College.

"I think it is despicable,'' Ms Smith said. Having disregarded the views of the public and the Opposition, "at the very least we would expect Government to be in charge so we can hold them responsible for the workings of the new school''.