Elizabeth College, The Ladies’ College and Blanchelande claimed that Deputy Peter Roffey’s draft amendment, which would cut taxpayers’ funding of the colleges by 50%, would still drive some children out of the independent sector and damage education across the island.
The Guernsey Press reported yesterday that Deputy Roffey had approached other States members about working up a ‘halfway house’ between Education’s proposal to abolish grants to the colleges, currently worth about £3m. a year, and the colleges’ counter-proposal to maintain the current level of funding until 2040, as part of a new public-private partnership arrangement.
Some members of Education are understood to be open to a compromise, but the three colleges indicated a tougher stance in a statement released late yesterday.
‘While the colleges acknowledge Deputy Roffey’s intention, which aims to avoid both propositions in the policy letter being rejected by the States, we would like to make it very clear that this alternative proposal would result in children moving into the States education sector, which would cost taxpayers more, and would have a destabilising effect on the island’s whole educational landscape, with long-term repercussions for Guernsey,’ they said.
Deputy Roffey’s draft amendment would cut the States’ grant to the three colleges to a total of about £1.7m. by 2033, after inflation. Annual funding per pupil would be reduced from about £2,300 to £1,700, assuming that the proportion of secondary-age students in the colleges remained the same. Estimated annual savings of about £750,000 would be ploughed back into education in the States sector and about £400,000 would be cut from the Education Committee’s overall budget. Fees at the colleges are currently between about £14,500 and £15,500 a year.
‘A reduction in funding would result in fee increases and consequently pupils would move to the States sector because a very significant proportion of parents in the independent colleges are in the lowest three quintiles of income range, and thus very vulnerable to fee increases,’ said the colleges.
Education president Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen has said that taxpayers’ funding of the colleges was ‘widening the attainment gap between our islands’ young people’ and the committee has claimed that the States’ three secondary schools could accommodate more students at little additional cost. The colleges said yesterday that they had been more open with the details of their costs than Education.
They questioned claims from Education which they said relied on assumptions which ‘appear to be very optimistic and without substance’.
Education has put its costs per pupil in the secondary phase at about £10,000 a year, but the colleges believe the figure may be closer to £15,000 a year once capital spending and Education Office costs are included.
‘The cost of educating a pupil in the States’ secondary sector remains unclear and we urge all deputies to seek clarity on this before accepting that Education’s proposal or associated amendments would deliver cost savings,’ said the colleges.
‘We look forward to discussing the proposed amendment with Deputy Roffey, and we continue to urge deputies to consider the facts carefully, to think long term, and to consider the impact their decision will have on 30% of Guernsey’s families.’
The future of colleges’ funding is likely to be debated at a States meeting which starts on 19 March.
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