Giving our children a better start
THE sudden pace of change and desire to improve the island's education system is refreshing. After years of denial, inaction and a love of secrecy the spies in MI5 would admire, the new regime is a breath of fresh air.
THE sudden pace of change and desire to improve the island's education system is refreshing. After years of denial, inaction and a love of secrecy the spies in MI5 would admire, the new regime is a breath of fresh air.
Islanders were rightly shocked when it was revealed that, far from leading the way and giving our children the best start possible, many were getting a substandard education that was leaving them at a profound disadvantage.
Until now, the focus of interest has been on the high schools and, in particular, La Mare de Carteret. No amount of bluster from those responsible could explain how a school in a wealthy island with low crime, no cultural divide and English as a first language for almost all pupils could possibly become the third worst performing in England.
Looking for a single factor here is as foolish as the apologists' daft insistence that this was just one bad year group. It was not. As we now know, La Mare has been in decline for almost a decade.
That is not down to one poor teacher, head of subject or even head teacher. It is a sign of a failing system where checks and balances and reviews were either ineffective or ignored.
As has now been acknowledged, there are much wider issues here than one GCSE year. One of those is the quality of the island's primary schools.
As reviewer Denis Mulkerrin makes clear, the standard of education provided by the feeder schools is crucial in giving each pupil the best chance of success.
In his first review, Mr Mulkerrin reserved comment on the primary sector to questioning the relatively poor reading ages of some pupils coming into the secondary sector.
His primary school review may be rapid but it promises to give some idea of what may be holding back our children in their vital formative years. Are some schools much better than others, and why? Is there some form of postcode lottery where a child's parish determines the standard of education he or she gets?
With information comes light and knowledge. With secrecy came darkness and ignorance.
