'11-plus debate before schools' reorganisation'
IT WOULD be naive to believe secondary schools could be reorganised without a major debate on selection, a former Education member has said.
Deputy Matt Fallaize was speaking after an independent report recommended that La Mare de Carteret High was rebuilt as a 600-pupil school, but that a wide-ranging investigation is launched into secondary and tertiary eduction, including moving from four to three States secondary schools.
He said he had long been supportive of rationalising schools at primary and secondary level for educational and financial reasons and was therefore 'not in the least bit surprised' that the reviewers have identified surplus capacity in secondary schools.
'But I think it's a bit naive to believe that the whole model of secondary school education can be reorganised without it involving another major debate on selection at 11,' he said.
'Colleagues at Education must find it a bit galling now to be lectured by others about the merits of having three rather than four secondary schools.
'It was the Education Council itself which first proposed a three-school model 15 years ago but they were rebuffed by the States.'
