school on a new site should be welcomed by all of Bermuda. It seems to us entirely fitting that the decision comes on the 100th anniversary of the founding of Berkeley.

The school has had a distinguished history often achieved under difficult circumstances. Yet over the years Berkeley produced most of the successful black leaders of this Country. It has done that simply because it has consistently been a good school. It is no accident that the leaders of Bermuda's three political parties are all Berkeleyites, Pamela Gordon, Jennifer Smith and Charles Jeffers. They are living testimony to the success of Berkeley.

The founders of the school had great foresight. They knew that the success of black Bermudians had to be based on education and they provided that education in a time of segregation. Deprived by segregation, excluded from the better schools, generations of black Bermudians were condemned to third rate schooling, except for Berkeleyites.

Today it is difficult to imagine Bermuda without Berkeley Institute and impossible to tell how much Bermuda, and black Bermudians in particular, might have been set back without this distinguished school. The reality is that there is a Berkeley Institute and its contribution is beyond measure.

The current chairman of the school's board of Governors has said the new building will have state-of-the-art facilities. That is as it should be given the millions spent on CedarBridge and the world class facilities provided there. If Berkeley is to play its part as one of the Island's two senior schools then it must not be secondary to CedarBridge and that means top facilities and top staffing.

There should be absolutely no thinking that Berkeley can "make do''. It would be absolutely unfair and wrong to make the school a poor relation of CedarBridge. We have agreed to two senior secondary schools and we must now provide them with equality.

Very similar efforts at planning and design and usage as those which went into CedarBridge must now go into a new Berkeley building. Berkeley has the advantage of a productive history, an experienced staff already in place and a loyal following which should give it a head start. But its governors should not make a mistake along the way of settling for anything but the best. They fought to keep Berkeley as a secondary school and now they must fight for its facilities.

Mr. White has said Berkeley will continue to offer "at least as good as the very best that the private school system has to offer''. There is nothing wrong with that but we think the aim should be better than the very best.