Government is set to appoint a Technological Education Officer at the Bermuda College, the Minister of Labour & Home Affairs and the Minister of Education jointly revealed yesterday.

The appointment comes in response to a perceived change in the economic sector's educational and vocational needs, and the desire to invest the island's infrastructure with greater numbers of qualified Bermudians.

"Not everyone can be, or wants to be, a lawyer or a doctor," said Education Minister Clarence Terceira. "With changing economic circumstances in Bermuda and the world, the emphasis is now shifting to a greater need for education over the full range of technical skills."

The new appointment will fall under the purview of the Ministry of Labour & Home Affairs. ``We are now taking steps,'' said Minister Irving Pearman, ``to integrate the island's educational opportunities at all levels.''
Mr. Pearman pointed out that in the past, a booming construction industry had been able to provide ready employment for the island's unskilled youth, which had resulted in the importation of necessary technical labour.

``There is a tremendous sense of self-worth in having regular employment,'' said Mr. Pearman. ``There is dignity in all vocations, just as meaningful training and employment is of key importance to the well-being of our community.
``The need for a focus on technical skills,'' he added, ``is the result of recent changes in the economy of the island, and we are responding to that in a serious way, with a view to boosting the island's infrastructure opportunities for our young people over the next ten years.''

Mr. Pearman stressed his hope that the greater level of regular employment resulting from the changes would have a beneficial impact on some of the island's social problems.

Sir David Gibbons, for 17 years the chairman of the now defunct Bermuda Technical Institute, expressed his support for the new direction.
``I would enthusiastically encourage a plan which re-establishes the need for broad skills training for Bermudians,'' said Sir David.
``As the economy has changed in the last few years, the need for broader educational opportunities has become greater. I am very pleased to see this area of education receive the attention it deserves, at the right time.''

As a former chairman of the now defunct Bermuda Technical Institute for 17 years, Sir David Gibbons describes himself as ``excited'' by the new focus on vocational training represented by the appointment of the new Technological Training Officer.

``I noticed a long article in a recent RG Magazine,'' said Sir David, ``which was a follow-up on several graduates of the Bermuda Technical Institute. I feel that a tremendous amount was achieved by the Technical Institute, and not solely during my tenure.''

Sir David added: ``I am aware that in the last 10 to 15 years, there has been an increasing shortage of technically-trained Bermudians, which has meant importing the necessary skills.
``I therefore openly welcome the move to re-establishing technological training, and hope to see it prove to be a significant success.''

Today's youngsters need more chances to learn practical skills, says a group of former Bermuda Technical Institute students.

The alumni, including civil servants and business executives, believe they benefited from the school's emphasis on vocational education.
Now they are banding together to urge Government and companies to do more to encourage technical training.
And they are hoping to raise enough money to offer scholarships and other financial aids.

The group is inviting former students and other interested people to help form the Bermuda Technical Institute Association at a meeting at the Belmont Hotel next week.
Organisers are not aiming to revive the institute, which operated from 1956 to 1972.
But they feel problems like unemployment could be eased with a new emphasis on the kind of training it offered.

``We would like to see technical education become as standard as reading, writing and arithmetic in the educational system, from middle school upwards,'' said Mr. Ross Smith, one of the association's founders.
Mr. Smith, from the institute's class of 1957, was an auto-body repairer and welder after he left the institute. He now has his own computer business, Datascan.
``One common thread in all the former students is that we agree that being exposed to a technical education gives you a problem-solving mentality and an analytical approach to solving problems.
``Our aim is that each child, from the time they hit middle school, would be exposed to a cross-section of technologies, from discussions, from speakers at the schools, and from day-release trips.
``At the senior secondary level they would have some hands-on experience, and at Bermuda College they would get more in-depth training.
``I don't think we can resurrect the insititute, because the economics do not allow for that.
``But I think that by careful utilisation of our resources we can expose our kids to the technical experience and allow them to have a wider field of choice so they can make a career decision based on known facts.'' With the right research, Bermudians could be trained to enter trades dominated by non-Bermudians, he said.

The association would suggest ways of helping unemployed people, said Mr. Smith.
It would encourage Government to act on its promise to provide a greater choice in technical, craft and vocational training.
And it would urge business people to invest more in the training of young people.

The embryo organisation had already offered its services in helping Government take over the Airport, said Mr. Smith.

This is the second in a series of Royal Gazette articles on the education system and Government's planned restructuring of public schools.
They mark the biggest change in education since integration.
The fear is that today's school reforms will be no more successful.
To some observers, the problems in education today are a legacy of the segregation that was law in the system into the 1960s.

And the Island -- including Government, Opposition, principals, teachers, and parents in both public and private schools -- is nearly unanimous in the hope that the shake-up now underway will cure the ills.

Otherwise, as Judge Stephen Tumim warned in his 1992 review of Bermuda's criminal justice system, the Island will see ``a greater entrenchment of two school systems -- a private one for whites and middle-class blacks, and a public system primarily for blacks.''

While private schools offer bursaries to promising students who cannot afford fees, the effect of their growth can be a split in school choices along class lines. Elites from both races, including Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan, former Opposition Leader Mrs. Lois Browne Evans, and current Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira are among those whose children attended private schools.
And it can be argued that when opinion leaders and the well-heeled have a reduced stake in the public system, the political will and financial ability to improve it can be lost.
That may help explain how the physical condition of Bermuda's schools reached the state that many are in today. It is also a problem Government may confront as it looks for the hundreds of millions of dollars it will cost to make restructuring work.
Until now, major changes in Bermuda's school system have made the private schools larger and the public schools blacker.

Bermuda High School for Girls went private when Government outlawed school segregation in 1963. Saltus Grammar, which today is increasingly well-integrated, left the public system when Government tried to speed change by forcing the amalgamation of black and white primary schools in 1971.
Most recently, Warwick Academy -- the best-integrated school and one of two ``academic'' secondary schools -- quit the public system over Government's plan to make it a middle school.

Whites have never been excluded from Berkeley Institute, the other academic secondary school. But its school population is nearly all black. Berkeley successfully resisted Government's plan to make it a middle school, but will lose its ``elite'' status when it becomes one of two senior secondary schools open to all students leaving middle school.

Where integration has occurred in Bermuda's schools, there has been little or no racial strife.

The Bermuda Technical Institute, which was integrated well before the law required it, closed after 16 years in 1972 and became part of Bermuda College. The void it left is among the flaws that Government's education reforms hope to address.

At the primary level, some formerly all-white schools like St. George's Prep, Gilbert Institute (built for Portuguese children in another example of segregation), and Port Royal are fairly well-mixed. But most of the historically black schools have remained black.
The situation has continued in part because parents have had the choice of sending their children to any primary school in whichever of three large zones they live.

Reports for Government by Mr. Harold Houghton (1964), the Wooding Commission (1968), and then Permanent Secretary of Education Hon. David Saul (1973) all recommended that school zones be tightened. But they were not, partly because of concerns that to do so would result in more ``white flight''.

Another factor cited in Government reports was the failure to bring all schools up to the same physical standards as part of the desegregation plan.

Even where Government created a school, like Warwick Secondary in 1968, ``the integration has not been very high,'' said Progressive Labour Party Sen. Terry Lister. ``It's very quickly become a black school, rather than an integrated school. Any school created after 1963 should have been an integrated school.''

Data included in a 1991 secondary school drug survey by Mr. Walton Brown, Jr. showed that Whitney Institute was 80 percent black, Warwick Secondary 91 percent black, St. George's Secondary 94 percent black, Sandys Secondary 96 percent black, and Berkeley Institute 99 percent black. Of the then-public schools, only Warwick Academy and Northlands were well-integrated, at about 60 percent black.

Government's 1991 census lists the Bermudian population as 72 percent black or mixed and 28 percent white. Dr. Joseph Christopher, the Education Ministry's Senior Education Officer (Curriculum) said that based on the racial mix of the population, integration in the public schools is not that far out of line. At the very least, the census figures suggest that Whitney could be included in the list of well-integrated schools.

A 1992 Penn & Schoen study showed 75 percent of respondents felt correcting the racial imbalance of Bermuda's schools was important.

As for Government's reform plans, Dr. Terceira said racial mixing was not one of the primary goals. However, it ``will be a byproduct of the restructuring,'' he said.
By having four primary schools with various racial mixes feeding into one middle school, and the five middle schools feeding into two senior secondary schools, ``greater integration will result,'' he said.

Education Minister the Hon. Clarence Terceira has come under criticism for his selection of a senior secondary school board.

The interim board, chaired by Bermuda Electric Light Company president Mr. Garry Madeiros, consists of several former teachers, a lawyer, a scientist and several business people.
And one of its main tasks, Dr. Terceira said, was to help find a principal for the senior secondary school at Prospect which will accommodate some 1,200 students.
Dr. Terceira said when he revealed the board's members a week ago: ``They will become the first champions for a project that will have great impact for Bermuda schools and Bermuda students.''

But chairman of the Bermuda Technical Institute Association, Mr. delMonte Davis, said the Board appeared to be ``very narrow'' in its make-up and he said he was surprised his organisation was not approached about having a representative.
``We have several of our trustees who sit on committees for the college and the Department of Education,'' Mr. Davis told The Royal Gazette.
``And we have several people who can be seen as ideal to sit on the board.''
Mr. Davis -- who stressed the BTIA was not formed to re-introduce the once successful Technical Institute but to ensure the education system met the needs of all students -- said it was important to have members of the board who were experienced in relative areas.
``You want to have the input of folks who have been in the trenches,'' he said. ``You don't ask a doctor to fix an automobile and you don't ask a motor mechanic to fix an arm.''

Mr. Davis said the BTIA -- which would be more than willing to help the board if approached -- believed its role was very important. ``It should cast its net very wide to ensure that it gets all the input and assistance possible,'' he said. ``Right now that is lacking.''

Shadow Education Minister Ms Jennifer Smith echoed similar sentiments. ``I would have thought that one would have gone back to the Education Planning Team's recommendations and have elected a board that reflected the community and the make-up of the school,'' she said.
She added the board, which had had no input into how the senior school was developed, would now be a buffer for any criticism directed at it. The Minister would be able to say the school had its own board and he was not responsible, Ms Smith claimed.
And she hoped some of those named to the board had children in public high schools.
She warned: ``Otherwise it will carry no validity with the public.'' But Dr. Terceira, speaking from Newfoundland where he was scheduled to meet with the Education Minister there, accused Ms Smith of trying to make the board appointment a ``political issue''.
``I'm not interested as to whether they have kids and whether they attend private or public schools,'' he said. ``I picked them for their expertise in the areas in which they work. These are intelligent people. They have got a lot to offer.''
While noting the board was an interim one, Dr. Terceira admitted some of the members ``will probably stay on and be a part of the final board that will set up in two years' time''.
``But I think the important thing is the commitment of these people and the expertise of these people.''

In reference to Mr. Davis' concerns, Dr. Terceira said: ``We are not reinstituting the technical institute. We are looking at technology that will take us into the 21st Century.''
However, he said his Ministry would welcome any input from Mr. Davis and members of the BTIA.

Mr. Madeiros was off the Island and unavailable for comment last night.

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