‘Bailiwick should aim to match best UK state schools’
ONE of the aims of the transformation of Guernsey’s education system is that students should be getting better GCSE results in line with the top state schools in the UK.
In 2018, 72.8% of Guernsey pupils in the Grammar School and secondary schools received five good grades at GCSE, which puts the island only marginally above the average in England.
Education, Sport & Culture committee believes that Guernsey should be performing at or above the level of more affluent areas of England, rather than the average of the whole country, which includes areas of extensive social deprivation.
Bracknell Forest, Kingston upon Thames, Rutland, West Berkshire, Windsor and Maidenhead, and York are listed as areas with a similar socio-economic picture to the Bailiwick, but Guernsey’s exam results are currently falling behind.
The policy letter from ESC states that while there was much to celebrate about educational performance in the Bailiwick, there was room for improvement.
‘Rather than holding up average examination results in England as a benchmark, the committee is ambitious in wanting the Bailiwick’s education system to be comparable with that offered in the highest performing state schools.’
‘This is how it defines excellence in terms of academic outcomes.’
Many educationalists believe that education in England is under-performing, and ESC accepts that comparisons with England could be flawed.
‘There is something in this: there is no reason why the Bailiwick should not aspire to reach standards in jurisdictions which consistently rank higher in international comparisons.’
