Education needs to be utilitarian
A MEDIA preview of the island's latest high school – the replacement Les Beaucamps – provided an opportunity for its head teacher to declare it a facility fit for the 21st century.
A MEDIA preview of the island's latest high school – the replacement Les Beaucamps – provided an opportunity for its head teacher to declare it a facility fit for the 21st century.
And it is clear that it is an impressive building with many state-of-art enhancements designed to improve the teaching and learning experience and environment.
What is also impressive, and a tribute to the project managers and the main contractor, is the steps that have been taken to try to claw back the time lost when 367 beams had to be replaced after one collapsed last year.
The Education minister has also used the opportunity to reiterate the department's desire to press on with a replacement for La Mare de Carteret and to obtain funding for it in the 2014 capital prioritisation process.
That's understandable. La Mare is beyond its design life and is the last high school to be rebuilt. The issue in the current climate is how it might be funded. Les Beaucamps cost £37m. and if La Mare is in the same area, the question is what else the island has to go without in order to invest in island youngsters.
While that debate might be premature now, visitors to Les Beaucamps have been taken by the quality of the build and some of the facilities like temperature controlled self-opening windows with manual override and rainwater harvesting.
Private projects generally have owners or shareholders ensuring that what is spent is no more than strictly necessary to achieve objectives while the taxpayer is reliant on a political board of lay people reinforced by Treasury and Resources asking relevant questions.
Islanders do not want to educate their children in sub-standard buildings but they do need to be assured that what they are spending is what's required and no more.
Given the history of the latest high school project and the enthusiasm of the previous regime for 'top speccing' its builds, the new minister has to be able to demonstrate that Education has adopted a more utilitarian approach.
And that's before Treasury and Resources gets involved.
