No hold up for institute, says leader of requete
EDUCATION has traded further blows with supporters of a move to pause the secondary schools’ building plans over any effect it would have on the integration of further and higher education.
The committee claims the requete would stop work on developing The Guernsey Institute, but this has been strongly refuted by those who drafted it.
‘The assertion by the Committee for Education Sport & Culture that the requete on Determining the Best Model for Secondary Education will stop work on the Guernsey Institute is a concoction,’ said requete leader Andrea Dudley-Owen.
‘In reality this appears to be an attempt to distract from the main issue.
‘The requete clearly directs in its prayer, and is limited to, the committee not entering “into any contractual obligations on behalf of the States or continue with any associated procurement processes for implementation of any of the one school on two sites plan”.
‘Despite the committee’s attempts to state otherwise, the requete is abundantly clear in its purpose and intent. This is yet another bid to deflect attention from the serious opposition that the one school on two sites model is now facing.’
She was responding shortly after Education released a statement saying it would be impossible to continue the work on the integration of further and on-island higher education and indefinitely delay the construction of new purpose-built facilities for The Guernsey Institute at Les Ozouets.
‘The requete directs the committee to enter into what would inevitably be a lengthy review of multiple models of secondary education which have been considered and dismissed previously,’ said committee president Deputy Matt Fallaize.
‘These include a tertiary college combining all elements of post-16 education – including A-levels and further education – and the previous committee’s rejected proposal to split the College of Further Education in two and create two new separate, illogical and probably unworkable institutions across post-16 education.
‘Secondary and further education are two sides of the same coin. While multiple models affecting both phases are being pointlessly reviewed again – any one of which may ultimately be implemented – it would be impossible to continue the excellent work which has been going on over the past year to establish The Guernsey Institute, which integrates the three States-funded providers of further and higher education, and to get them into new purpose-built facilities according to the timeline we have set out and had approved by the States.’
The Guernsey Institute was established in 2019 by bringing together the College of Further Education, Institute of Health and Care Studies and GTA University Centre, as approved by the States in 2018.
Julian Winser, chairman of the shadow board of governors of The Guernsey Institute, said: ‘The integration of the three post-16 institutions into The Guernsey Institute is already under way, so to have to stop if the requete is successful would be hugely damaging given the widespread support for the reforms from industry, the educational system, and the public – in fact all except a very small number of deputies.’
. On Thursday a public meeting is being held by the deputies who laid the requete. It takes place at the Grammar School between 7 and 9pm.
. In response to yesterday’s story about the possibility of extending the Grammar school in a three school model, Education says it had correspondence with the Intermediate & Grammar School Association about the States buying the playing fields at Les Varendes in March and May 2018. There have also been informal discussions, it has said.
The association said yesterday that no talks had taken place about developing or extending the schools site into the playing fields, just about whether the fields would be available as playing fields once the Grammar School ceased to be a school.
