Teachers would welcome ESC ‘going back to drawing board’
TEACHERS remain deeply sceptical about the need to move Guernsey’s existing sixth form centre to Les Ozouets.
The National Education Union said the profession was unconvinced by the proposal.
‘Of added significance in the light of the contents of the recently published Policy & Resources tax review is the huge cost of moving the sixth form centre just down the road to Les Ozouets,’ said a spokesman.
‘Given that professional opinion has repeatedly cast doubts upon the educational value of such a move, the combination of capital costs of £30m.-plus and the as yet unreleased revenue costs of running such a small, uneconomic establishment must raise concerns among deputies who seek to prioritise cost management when our community is threatened by additional tax burdens, including the unpopular possibility of a GST.’
A post-16 campus, which would put the sixth form centre next to The Guernsey Institute, is regarded by Education, Sport & Culture as the flagship of its education reform proposals, which are due to be debated this week.
Political critics are also worried that a sixth form centre at Les Ozouets will be unworkable because it will be too small and teachers will have to travel to and from other schools, to the detriment of staff, pastoral care and school culture.
Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez has called the plans for Les Ozouets a ‘gamble’ with no precedent, although ESC says it is not an ‘untried concept’.
Very early feedback from teachers on an amendment from Deputy Gavin St Pier has been positive.
He wants ESC to go back to the drawing board to ‘co-create and co-design from the bottom up a workable model’ that has the support of the teaching profession.
The NEU anticipated this would be well received.
‘NEU members are still digesting the contents of the St Pier/Cameron amendments at what is a particularly busy time with the all the usual pressures of a new school year being complicated by the impact of coping with Covid-19.
‘Feedback from colleagues is ongoing but, at a time when professional confidence in ESC is already very considerably compromised, the possibility of “bottom-up, workable proposals” will certainly appear welcome to many of those charged with actually delivering any secondary reorganisation propositions approved by deputies,’ the union said.
