Draft secondary report left for incoming ESC
A DRAFT report on the future of secondary education was issued last week by the outgoing Education, Sport & Culture committee, it emerged yesterday.
Its new president undertook to have a version out for discussion as a main priority.
Andrea Dudley-Owen was elected unopposed to the post, returning to a committee of which she was vice-president until resigning at the start of 2018 when the States rejected its three-school model for secondary education.
This paved the way for a model proposing one school spread across two sites, which was the favoured option until Deputy Dudley-Owen led a campaign to ‘pause and review’ this option and to look at other alternatives.
During her speech ahead of being appointed president, she told members that the previous committee had published a draft report based on this review last week and one of the new ESC’s first jobs would be to look at this.
‘I would like to work this up into a presentable format to deliver this informally to States members and communicate it widely,’ she said.
She also stressed the importance of the sport and cultural side of the work, saying that as well as the benefit of taking part in sports and the ‘enrichment and social engagement’ to be gained from the arts, and the social bonding of the island’s cultural heritage, they were also important for visitors. ‘They not only enrich our lives locally, but also enrich our offering for the purposes of tourism,’ she said.
‘Because in their own right, these areas add relevance and substance to our community.’
This was an area where ESC’s mandate linked with Economic Development’s.
She said she was excited to be returning to the committee and had had clear expressions of interest from members who were eager to join her on it.
‘The success of our economy is dependent upon the educational skill set of our workforce, and especially that of our young people and beyond.’
She was not standing because of her challenge to the old committee with the pause and review proposal, but because she believed she was able to bring a broader view to its mandate, ‘realising the inter-dependencies with the policy areas of other committees’.
. Deputy Dudley-Owen was nominated by Deputy Peter Ferbrache and seconded by Deputy Gavin St Pier.
