teachers have been left out of the restructuring process.

Dr. Christopher was responding to comments made by Bermuda Union of Teachers organiser Milton Scott earlier this week.

Sen. Scott told The Royal Gazette teachers had been left out of the education restructuring process for too long, were feeling increasingly vulnerable to school violence, and were stretched beyond their limits due to inadequate resources and training.

And he did not rule out the possibility of a work-to-rule, similar to that held recently by Government blue-collar workers, if the situation did not change.

But Dr. Christopher stressed that teachers and the BUT "as an organisation'' had been involved in the reform process before it began.

Walter Stevens, BUT president in 1987, had urged former Education Minister Gerald Simons to take steps to improve the state of public education, he noted.

"This was the most significant of the many sources of input which resulted in the Minister creating the Education Planning Team (EPT) in December, 1987,'' Dr. Christopher stated.

Two BUT representatives, Glenn Fubler and Carol Figuereido, served on the EPT and about 35 teachers sat on strategy teams which had a major impact on recommendations for specific strategies, he added.

"The Curriculum Steering Committee is one of the major committees arising from the EPT strategies,'' Dr. Christopher said. "There is an official representative of the Bermuda Union of Teachers on the Steering Committee. At present that person is Angel Heyliger who is also a member of the BUT executive.'' Dr. Christopher also noted that teachers were developing curriculum documents, policies and recommendations for special student inclusion, and that BUT executive member Anthony Wolffe officially represented the union on the staff development committee.

Responding to Sen. Scott's claim that only $8,000 of the $120 million being spent on education reform had been directed to the teachers resource centre, he said the centre represented a small part of the support the Ministry provided to the development of its teaching staff.

"Mr. Scott has omitted to mention that Government has expended in excess of $1,000,000 in each of the past two years on staff development and continues to place major emphasis in this area,'' Dr. Christopher stated.

"In recognition of the absence of local universities to provide courses in innovative instructional practices or courses in new content for particular subject areas, the Ministry has assumed this responsibility for the local system.''