'Don't put money before our children's education'
DO NOT put money before the education of children, the Education minister has warned as another delay looms over the rebuild of the crumbling La Mare De Carteret schools.
Treasury has announced plans to challenge the department's request to start the long-awaited £60.2m. redevelopment project, instead calling for a decision to first be made on whether one of the island's four secondary schools should be closed – it has argued that building the school without knowing the future of selection and needs on the secondary system would be 'committing the States to supporting a system that does not offer best value'.
This was dismissed by Education minister Robert Sillars.
'Treasury went and got a report written at the behest of the chief minister and the deputy chief minister.
'That report has come back and has said that La Mare should be built as a 600-place school and that we should review the education estate – but La Mare being built is not dependent on that, and our report is saying exactly that,' he said.
'We're saying we will rebuild the school and we will review going from four secondary schools to three – we're not ducking that issue, we will report back on that before the end of the States term.
