‘I believe I can deliver on secondary transformation’
In the first of a series of interviews with the new presidents of States committees, Helen Bowditch speaks to Education, Sport & Culture’s Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen
A COMMITMENT to deliver and resolve the controversy over secondary education has been given by the new president of Education, Sport & Culture.
Andrea Dudley-Owen, who led the successful pause-and-review requete in the last States, and was the top-ranked independent candidate in the general election, has vowed to end the uncertainty.
‘It needs to be resolved. I’m not scared of having the pressure on me to deliver and I believe that I can deliver it otherwise I wouldn’t have put myself up for the job. I didn’t put myself up for the job because I have scrutinised and challenged the previous committee, I put myself up for it because, having looked around the States at that time, I felt that I was the best person to deliver it.
‘I’m confident that this is not the committee that has been painted as a poisoned chalice. It’s not that, it never has been and I will prove that to the community.’
A draft report has been produced by the old ESC committee as part of the directive that came under pause-and-review.
The work compares the two-school model, which ESC had favoured, with three other models: three 11-18 colleges, two 11-16 colleges and one 11-18 college, and three 11-16 colleges and a separate sixth form college on a different site.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said that her committee wanted to understand fully whether the review so far was fair, balanced and objective, and when it is released publicly, which should be before Christmas, it will be labelled as the previous committee’s work.
‘The new committee will need to look at the review and challenge and scrutinise and understand the facts and figures and assumptions as well as the principles on which it is based.
‘We’re also very cognisant of the fact that it’s not complete, that teaching staff and unions have still not completed their engagement around this, so it’s far too early for us to judge the review because it hasn’t been completed.’
Crucial to getting the education system right, according to Deputy Dudley-Owen, is creating better links with Economic Development, because there are sharp economic gains to be made from better-skilled students.
But that is not to say that she wants to fuse schooling to pound signs, because she has a lot of enthusiasm for creating intellectual curiosity, confident thinkers, and learning for life.
‘I believe the question we should be asking is, why do we educate our children? And I believe that the answer to that question is to make them valuable contributors to our community, to empower them to be resilient, confident, capable and compassionate individuals who add value to our workforce and also to the wider community.
‘And everything in terms of education needs to be aligned to that purpose, but as a committee this is something that we need to work through with our officers, and to define so that people understand very clearly where the model of education actually fits in.’
Deputy Dudley-Owen is keen that the sport and culture parts of her remit do not get overshadowed by education, and she described her biggest challenge as prioritising the work that will have the greatest positive impact on the community.
