Four-school secondary model is back on Education’s agenda
THE EXISTING four-school model of secondary education is back on the agenda after the new Education committee decided it should become a benchmark in the ‘pause and review’ investigations.
Education, Sport & Culture president Andrea Dudley-Owen said the review had been broadened because of the financial impact of the pandemic and because of pressure from the public.
‘We are convinced that constraining the review so that it excludes models that, via the ballot box at the general election, our community has indicated it would like to have explored, and using as its only benchmark a two-school model that those same voters appear to have strongly rejected, simply does not sit right with us both collectively as the committee mandated to complete the review and individually as people’s deputies,’ she said.
The latest details came out following a series of questions led by Deputy Lyndon Trott.
He wanted to know more about the apparent departure from the directions set in March this year when ESC was told to compare and contrast only four different schooling models.
At that time, option (a) was three 11-18 schools, option (b) was two 11-16 schools and one 11-18 school, option (c) was three 11-16 with a separate sixth form college on a different site, and finally option (d) was two 11-18 schools.
In the run-up to the general election many of the successful candidates pledged to their electorate that they were in favour of option (c).
Deputy Dudley-Owen said broadening the scope of the review was only a ‘minor variation’ that would not result in delays and her committee fully intended to comply with the ‘spirit’ of what had been agreed.
‘It is not helpful for this Assembly to be so tightly constrained by the ideologies of the predecessor committee, no matter what one’s personal view of those ideologies is, that we have no regard to the voice of the community nor to the stark reality of the island’s current financial position.’
An interim report into ‘pause and review’ has been drawn up and Deputy Trott asked whether it could be made available to the public along with the annual running costs of each of the models.
The response from Deputy Dudley-Owen was that the interim report was ‘woefully premature’ because it did not include feedback from teachers and would need to come with a ‘serious health warning’, but she promised to make it available if there was a ‘clamour’.
Next, Deputy Gavin St Pier was on his feet making what he hoped was a clamour with: ‘Please publish the report’.
A policy letter from Education, Sport & Culture setting out a future for secondary education is on track to come before the States by the end of April next year.
