‘Students left in limbo over schools delay’
DISAPPOINTMENT at the delay to the plans for secondary education has been expressed by deputies who were against the proposals in the first place, although one said the hold-up was ‘understandable but unfortunate’.
Lindsay de Sausmarez said she was very disappointed at the news for several reasons and that it was going to leave students who had expected to transition to a new system going through their entire school life in a ‘non-system’.
Two successive States’ Assemblies voted to do away with selection at 11 but no system was put in place to replace it, she said, and the idea was that students would transition into the new secondary school model.
‘We now have year groups in limbo and some of these students are quite possibly going to spend the whole of their education in this limbo,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez. On top of this, she said there was still no detail about the curriculum to be offered by the new schools and no traffic impact assessment.
‘We still don’t know quite what this new system is and we’re still none the wiser about these really important details.’
Scrutiny Panel member Simon Fairclough was another member who opposed the plans and said he was ‘disappointed but hardly surprised’ at news of the delay.
His concern was the potential for additional costs that might be incurred, despite assurances from Education, Sport & Culture president Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen that contingencies were built in to the £100m. total price tag.
‘At the recent Public Scrutiny Hearing – just three-and-a-half weeks ago – the president and vice-president of ESC acknowledged the pressure the timeline was under, but appeared confident the project would still be delivered on time and on budget,’ said Deputy Fairclough.
‘Of course what seems to have happened since is that the tenders for works have come back, providing a large dose of reality.’
While he shared Deputy Dudley-Owen’s frustration at the delay, in particular on behalf of students, teachers and parents, who he said had already suffered enough, ‘we need to keep looking forwards and I am confident the committee will do all it can to mitigate the impact of this development and continue to act in the best interests of the community.’
Adrian Gabriel seconded an amendment by Deputy Tina Bury calling for Education to make a full side-by-side comparison of different school models, as it had agreed when members accepted the ‘pause and review’ requete.
The amendment was lost and the two deputies behind it went on to vote against the model that was accepted by the Assembly.
Deputy Gabriel said the one-year delay was ‘understandable but unfortunate’.
‘When you have a project spending up to £100m. there are going to be delays and over-runs so it’s good that they are forecasting that now, so there’ll be no nasty surprises in 2023 or 2024,’ he said.
Although he was not in favour of the original plans, he said he accepted the majority decision of the States.
‘We have to play with the cards we’ve been dealt.’
