*** Mr. Ottiwell Simmons (PLP) said: "We need an education system which offers education and then offers them the opportunity after they have got the education.'' Mr. Simmons also took aim at The Royal Gazette , saying that more Bermudians should be given the chance to get into journalism.

He said: "We are saying there should be training objectives there for local Bermudians to become journalists in this Country.

"It's an indictment against this Country to let The Royal Gazette constantly have a free hand to bring in foreign journalists.'' Mr. Simmons stressed that he was not against foreign newspeople in principle -- but said: "If we have a Bermuda Royal Gazette, that paper should be monopolised by local writers.'' And he said 80 percent of hotel beds are owned by foreigners, while most general managers in the major hotels are also foreign.

Mr. Simmons said that the Collector of Customs designate Winniefred Fostine-DeSilva had been denied the opportunity to head that department up.

The post will be advertised overseas -- but Mrs. Fostine DeSilva will take over after three years under a foreign officer.

And he claimed Police Commissioner Colin Coxall "did not have to take a test -- he was taken on trust for his job and the first step of his strategy was to de-Bermudianise the Police service.'' Kim Young (UBP) said education was an emotive issue because everyone had children in the system and that laypersons felt they were experts.

She welcomed the audit's recommendation that the advisory Board of Education -- of which she is a member -- should be brought closer to the decision-making centre of the system.

Mrs. Young said: "They feel they don't get enough information to give people correct answers, which means people could lose faith and confidence in the board -- and the system as well.'' She added that many students did not cope well with traditional methods of education and missed out on the basics.

Mrs. Young said: "Ones who become disruptive in our system are the ones who need alternative teaching.'' Shadow Works and Engineering Minister Stanley Morton questioned whether Mr.

Dill's speech was an election-style speech. And he called for private schools to be subjected to the same scrutiny as the public system.

Mr. Morton pointed out that if people did not have money in their pocket, they did not have the ability to earn for their families, trouble would continue.

He called on non-residents on work permits to be used for training Bermudians and that foreigners should be given a maximum of two or three years on their permits "then after that a Bermudian.'' UBP backbencher Maxwell Burgess said that every child, whether educated in the state system or privately, deserved "the best teachers, the best principals -- anything else compromised the entire education system.'' And he added that anyone who did not subscribe to that was "prepared to give children in public education a second-rate education.'' Mr. Burgess also pointed out that comparison between state and private schools was pointless because of the selective entry process in the independent sector.

And he said some parents expected too much from their children -- who were stigmatised when they failed to live up to unrealistic expectations.

Lois Browne Evans (PLP) said that it should be remembered that Cabinet had a collective responsibility for the education system.

She added that international business has poured a fortune into the private sector -- far in excess of what they had given in scholarships and donations over the years.

And she condemned experimentation with new educational systems some years ago as using children as guinea pigs for now-discredited methods.

She added that the PLP would have not only brought the audit to the House, but brought a timescale for improvements to set alongside it.

Mrs. Browne Evans said that Government must use a greater portion of its budget for education.

Moreover she said that the United Bermuda Party had a moral obligation to regard the education of its citizens as its number one priority.

Mrs. Browne Evans said that the auditor's report should be sent to every household so that they can see for themselves the state of the Education Ministry.

Meanwhile Finance Minister Grant Gibbons said that it was courageous for Government to have made the results of the audit public and it underscored the Education Minister's sense of responsibility and accountability.

He said that Government had already allocated more money to the Ministry -- an increase of some 12 per cent over 1996/97. And he pointed out that private companies were also funding scholarships.

Shadow Health Minister Renee Webb meanwhile said that an audit should be standard practice in every Ministry so that the taxpayer can see how their money is being spent.

The Education Ministry was experiencing difficulties for some time she said and it has been compounded when the decision was taken to have an audit after the decision was already made to have the megaschool.

Ms Webb said that her concern was for the average Bermudian student because the exceptional ones would succeed in any case as long as the support was there.

But she said that even though tourism and international business are the Island's main industries the Education system was not producing people who can fill those positions.