Deputies reject attempt to delay schools debate until exam results seen
STATES members yesterday indicated a strong desire to sort out the future of the island’s secondary and post-16 education, after they threw out an amendment which called for further delay and review.
Many amendments will still be in play as debate continues today, but Deputy Marc Leadbeater’s attempt to pause until the exam results of the first non-selective cohort of children had been analysed was defeated by a more than 2-1 majority.
He questioned why La Mare de Carteret was slated for closure when it was consistently the highest achieving all-ability school.
He insisted that the amendment was not an effort to ‘kick the can down the road’, but that more data was needed.
‘In Guernsey we have a committee at Education, Sport & Culture that can sit down for six months and bring proposals that are not universally accepted by the public or profession, to an Assembly of 40 randoms like ourselves here today, and then we have a massive bun fight.’
The silence of head teachers was mentioned in the debate. Deputy Leadbeater had concluded that they were not in favour of Education, Sport & Culture’s plans.
Deputy Bob Murray, vice-president of ESC, was the first speaker to shoot the amendment down.
He said exam results should not be considered in isolation and that ‘navel gazing’ would not move the island forward.
He said that the culture of commissioning reviews had ‘got to stop’. The States had spent more than £10m. on education reviews in recent years, he said.
Another ESC member, Deputy Susan Aldwell, called it ‘Dickensian’ to tie a delay to exam results.
To her, it was a text book example of a ‘kicking the can down the road amendment’.
‘Do we really want to keep students on site with no plans in place until we have a review on non-selection exam attainment before we finally make a decision?’
Deputy Neil Inder used his speech to express anger about the lack of maintenance at La Mare de Carteret High School, which he called ‘States-sponsored criminal damage’ and an ‘utter disgrace’.
He said that in 2015 the States had spent £300,000 on a new flat roof at La Mare, but it was not painted and the leaves were not removed from the gutters. On a visit to the school Portacabins in 2016 he had noticed the smell of rats’ urine.
‘That’s the way the children of La Mare have been treated over the last 10 years’.
The main theme of the debate was a need for a decision. Deputy Victoria Oliver hammered that message home.
‘We’re at the final decision again and this just feels like last term, and we now need to make a decision, whether it’s Deputy Cameron’s, Deputy Le Tocq’s or Deputy Dudley-Owen’s, a decision needs to be made. We just keep messing around with educational pieces, it is just flip-flopping completely, can we just please throw this amendment out, actually make a decision and stick to it.’
The amendment was defeated by 27 votes to 12.
There are four further amendments to be debated today, with the most significant coming from rebel ESC member Deputy Andy Cameron with his ‘do minimum’ proposal, which is favoured by a majority of States secondary teachers.
