Requete seeks schools decision by December
THE politicians who want to rip up plans for the two comprehensive colleges have set a deadline of December for a new education model to be agreed.
The final version of Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen’s requete, calling for a halt to the transformation programme, has now been published, and it offers no firm direction for the future of States schools.
Instead the requerants want to ‘pause and review’ and send Education, Sport & Culture back to the drawing board to consider a melting pot of different ideas.
ESC would be tasked with creating a ‘comprehensive comparison’ of all the different models of non-selective education so that States members can see the research ‘in totality’.
The requerants are asking for this report to be created within this political term, but crucially they want the next States to have the power to decide on it.
The requete specifically mentions ‘non-selective’ models, which means there are no plans at this stage to put the 11-plus back into the arena.
There are no major surprises in the requete, except one of the signatories is Deputy Jeremy Smithies, who in September voted in favour of giving financial backing to the two-school model.
The other signatories are Deputies John Gollop, Mary Lowe, Carl Meerveld, Rob Prow and Lester Queripel.
Central to the motion is the June general election and the argument that the new crop of States members should take the final decision, because it is they who will be responsible for financing and implementing the plans.
‘In the circumstances of increased stakeholder challenge, your petitioners believe that it is essential the newly-convened committee and States of Deliberation be allowed to make this determination prior to proceeding further with the one school on two sites model.
‘Thus, avoiding the potential for significant additional costs if the new States of Deliberation were to choose another model for implementing non-selective education.’
The requete has two propositions, firstly it directs Education, Sport & Culture not to enter into any contractual obligations or continue with the procurement processes.
The second calls for the new ESC committee, in place after the election, to come up with a new policy letter on States schools.
In line with the rules for requetes, Education, Sport & Culture has been asked to come up with an estimate of the costs associated with a one-year delay.
It is unclear how the requete could impact the £47.5m. rebuild of the College of Further Education at the Ozouets because it does not get a mention.
In September last year, the States voted 22-15 to give financial backing to the two schools at the Baubigny and Les Beaucamps.
ESC may have thought it was a done deal, but the response of teachers and the community to the submission of the planning applications reopened the debate.
The vast majority of teachers at the secondary schools agreed with anonymous letters which outlined concerns about traffic and a lack of indoor and outdoor space.
