A march on Cabinet scheduled for today by the parent teacher associations (PTA) of five primary schools possibly facing the axe has been postponed after a successful meeting with the Ministry of Education.

East End, Prospect, Gilbert Institute, Heron Bay and Dalton E. Tucker primary schools have all been named for possible closure under radical plans to restructure the education system, although Education Minister El James has insisted no decision has been made.

A statement from the PTAs yesterday said: "The executives are satisfied with the preliminary discussions and the assurance that we will have an opportunity to address our concerns, proposals and recommendations as a part of the entire school reform process.

"The Ministry representatives have agreed to attend our PTA meetings to talk directly with the parents. We encourage all parents to attend the meetings."

Last night the Ministry refused to comment.

Taheera Lovell, PTA president of Heron Bay, said today's planned march was postponed after the Ministry and PTA members agreed to try and work together.

"It's premature to march on an issue that hasn't been fully addressed," she said.

Asked what the meeting was about, Ms Lovell said: "Mainly it was giving feedback to the Minister about possible school closures. Going forward, we are going to try to be in partnership more and find beneficial solutions to education. That is the stance that we are taking. We'll be reaching out to all the PTAs."

Meanwhile, former Government statistician Cordell Riley highlighted the Island's ageing population as a reason for school closures.

"From a purely governmental point of view, if you have an ageing population more of its resources have to be devoted to seniors and less to the younger members of the population. That is why we hear of FutureCare programmes and an extension of HIP insurance for seniors.

"Likewise that is why we also hear of school closures. It should be stated, however, that the Government has not abandoned the young as it has introduced free bus and ferry travel and free tuition at the Bermuda College.

"But rest assured, as the numbers of seniors continues to grow, expect a greater proportion of Government revenues to be devoted to them."

There were 4,031 children in Bermuda between the ages of five and nine in 2000, representing 6.5 percent of the population, Mr. Riley said. The predictions in that age group for 2010 are 5.7 percent or 3,702 children.

"When it was revealed last week that the Government had intentions of closing some primary schools there was, perhaps not surprisingly, concern expressed by both the general public and educational interests groups," the statistician noted.

"However, if one were to look at Bermuda's population trends over the past decade, one could only have concluded that school closures would be inevitable."

Meanwhile, the population of seniors is expected to rise to 13 percent, up from 10.8 percent of the population in 2000.