Education model ‘a game-changer’
THE proposed model for secondary education will work and be a cultural game-changer for the island, the president of Education, Sport & Culture has said.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen, who takes her committee’s proposals for the future of secondary and post-16 education to the States tomorrow, added that further delay in progress would be throwing money down the drain.
Education issued a statement yesterday in response to concerns raised by teachers and in reaction to several amendments placed to its proposals. In it the committee summarises its approach and claims all the amendments placed would only serve to create more and costly delay and uncertainty for staff, students and parents.
Just because ESC had not commented in the media to issues raised by teaching staff did not mean it was apathetic towards them, Deputy Dudley-Owen said.
The committee had been criticised for not engaging with concerns raised through the media. But ESC had responded to views expressed by staff at the secondary schools directly, rather than commenting in the media. ‘In each instance we have responded directly to staff because this is the right thing to do.’
A response was being prepared to a recent letter from staff at the Grammar School and Sixth Form Centre, she said.
As well as visiting the schools, weekly communications were being published on the States’ website to clarify the committee’s views on the concerns raised.
The proposals face six amendments, ranging from doing nothing to picking up a review started by the previous committee which the States previously voted to halt.
Deputy Dudley-Owen is adamant that ESC’s proposals are the way forward.
‘It is our committee’s proposals that offer the most pragmatic answer to the post-16 conundrum – and it has been a conundrum as so many of the debates around the future of secondary and post-16 education in recent years have focused on the post-16 element.
‘Our plans in this area are bold, ambitious and future-proofed and they could be a cultural game-changer for the whole island.
‘Cultures can take years or even decades to change, and our committee is trying to take that crucial first step towards changing an outdated and divisive culture that has existed for decades around students’ post-16 pathway choices’.
