Education president grilled by douzeniers over school

In response, Deputy Fallaize gave a commitment to maintain an ‘open door’ with the douzaines and keep them in the loop about the changes.

The mood of the packed meeting, with douzaine representatives from the west and southern parishes, was described by one audience member as ‘polite hostility’, and a range of views were expressed.

There were lots of questions from the audience for Deputy Fallaize.

One person read out the results of the recent survey of teachers, which showed that 65% of teachers were not confident in the quality of educational opportunities in the two proposed colleges.

There were a few sharp intakes of breath when Deputy Fallaize said he was surprised that as many as a third of teachers said they were confident.

He promised that ‘active dialogue’ was ongoing with teachers, but added that it was unrealistic to expect all teachers to be fully on board.

When traffic was mentioned, the meeting got heated, with many audience members saying that the transport plans were unrealistic, with no consideration to the modern parent and that all the buses would slow down the rest of the traffic.

Deputy Fallaize stressed that nothing was set in stone yet, and they were open to suggestions.

There was no show of hands or straw poll at the end of the two-and-a-half-hour meeting, but there were still a lot of crossed arms and furrowed brows.

The round of applause to thank ESC was also a little muted.

St Andrew’s constable Peter Ward said he had not been swayed by the meeting.

‘The infrastructure just will not cope with the proposal for this site, and they really haven’t addressed or satisfied any of the concerns with regard to this, traffic-wise, movement of pupils, or cost,’ he said.

St Martin’s constable Jeff Wilkes-Green echoed that view.

‘The teachers on this island are extremely worried, and there was no perception of that at all.’

Dave Chester, a Castel douzenier, said he been converted during the meeting, but he thought it was arrogant of Education to tell everyone they had to walk or cycle.

‘This has been democratically approved by the States on two occasions, so to stop at this stage would be absolutely ludicrous, but that’s my own personal opinion,’ he said.

‘Certainly we are getting a lot of feedback from parishioners in respect of the traffic policy because, as it stands, it is likely to cause gridlock, especially here within the Castel.’

Tim Langlois, a St Peter’s douzenier, thought it was an excellent presentation and he said the idea that all the douzaines were opposed to the new schools was not true.

‘The majority of us have our own opinions, and they may be for and against, but there is no unified drive against these plans, that was just certain constables in certain parishes who basically weaponised the douzaine voice, in my opinion that was total nonsense.’