ESC – ‘Strong interest’ in community governor roles
MORE than 20 people have applied to sit on interim governance boards for States schools.
The Education Committee intends to appoint one community governor to each of 19 school boards.
Education said yesterday that the number of people hoping to join a board ‘well exceeded the number of roles available’ and that it was ‘delighted by the level of interest’ during a two-month application period which closed last month.
It declined to say exactly how many applications were received or the highest number and lowest number of applications for a role at any single school.
‘It is clear there is a strong level of interest from the community to support our school leaders as we meet the commitments of the education strategy and aspire to excellence,’ said Education president Andrea Dudley-Owen.
‘This is a really pleasing start to what we hope will be a new and exciting era of education governance for our islands.’
Education has started interviewing applicants. It will set up selection panels in due course. But it declined to say when the new community governors would be appointed.
There are 20 interim governing boards in total. Community governors will be selected for every board except at The Guernsey Institute, where industry representatives have already been appointed.
The education law gives Education, Sport & Culture and its officials extensive controls over day-to-day management of States schools, which has divided opinion since 2012, when an independent report claimed that over-centralisation was hurting schools and students.
When it set up interim governance boards, ESC said they would help bring together staff, parents and community representatives and provide schools with more focused support and challenge.
The continuation of the boards has faced criticism from some deputies after the States Assembly last year backed an amendment for ‘far greater devolution of powers’ to schools, including over their finances and staff, before the Education Committee withdrew all its proposals for a new Education Law.
Deputy Peter Roffey recently said he wanted Education to get on with drafting devolution proposals instead of recruiting more members to interim governance boards which have no legal powers or duties.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said her committee was ‘mindful of the content’ of the 2023 States debate on the education law but also of its ongoing responsibilities to govern schools.
‘Through the work of the interim governance boards, the committee is already seeing a tangible benefit to the learners in our schools and The Guernsey Institute because of the active support, challenge and curiosity provided by the governance that is now taking place.’
ESC has previously said that it hopes to return to the States before the end of the current term with fresh proposals to reform the education law and that its work on this would be helped by the experience of running the schools’ interim governance boards in the meantime.
