Education to ask States for £157m.
EDUCATION’S future plans for secondary education, redeveloping a primary school and the combining of three higher education bodies will cost up to £157.3m., it has been revealed today.
The Education, Sport & Culture committee released the figures ahead of a policy letter going to the States.
Up to £69m. would be spent redeveloping St Sampson’s and Les Beaucamps high schools to deliver the ‘one school in two colleges’ model.
Between £13.5m. and £22.4m. will go towards redeveloping La Mare de Carteret Primary School and £47m. on creating the Guernsey Institute – which brings together the College of Further Education, the Institute of Health & Social Care Studies and the GTA University Centre.
The remainder of the capital funding will cover transport, such as traffic management and active transport solutions, as well as professional fees, the programme team and the implementation of the digital roadmap.
Deputy Fallaize said the latest figures for extending the two high schools was at least £30m. less than was originally forecast in 2018.
‘These are big numbers but they represent a significant reduction on the figures presented to the States in January 2018, when the Assembly was advised that the new model of education would cost around £165m. in capital costs,’ he said.
‘These reductions have been achieved partly through the use of more realistic space specifications and partly through rigorous examination of what is required to achieve educational transformation of secondary education.’
He said he was delighted the committee was making savings.
‘Our policy letter [which will be submitted on Friday] sets out how this will be achieved,’ he said.
‘The capital funding requested will enable the current committee, and indeed every future committee, to deliver an exceptional education system that removes the current inequality in provision experienced by our students. [It] puts their educational needs and wellbeing at the centre of everything we do, and will ensure that they are provided with opportunities that allow them to develop personally and contribute to the social, economic and cultural life of the Bailiwick.’
The capital funding requested for the rebuild of La Mare de Carteret Primary School has included proposals for a pod, which is a facility for children under the age of 9 whose ability to cope in mainstream school is affected by emotional or mental health difficulties.
In total, the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture is asking the States to approve £157.3 million of capital funding to deliver the future structure of secondary, further and higher education agreed by the States last year. The figure announced represents the maximum capital spend required.
As well as details on the capital costs of the future model, Education has provided information on the annual revenue savings of the new model. It will deliver annual recurring revenue savings of between £1.8m. and £2.2m. per year.
The school at Baubigny opened in 2008 at a cost of £43.5m, while Les Beaucamps was opened in 2012 after being rebuilt at a cost of £37m.
