ESC ‘open to compromise on funding of colleges’
The Education president has said her committee is open to a compromise on college funding, though she insists that a ‘policy conflict’ must be addressed when the States debates the topic next week.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen said her committee had worked with deputies wanting to bring amendments forward to help to find a resolution between the States and the three independent colleges over their grant funding.
She said that the committee’s position remained to taper the grant down to zero over five years, while the colleges were arguing to increase it to £4,000 per pupil per year over a longer period.
‘Compromises are coming in between those two positions,’ she said.
Listen to the full interview with Deputy Dudley-Owen on the latest Guernsey Press Politics Podcast
‘It’s clear that some movers of those amendments feel that the committee position does not go far enough and that the colleges’ position goes too far.
‘I think that the committee will be wanting to retain a position of seeing a taper and being able to return some savings.
‘The taper is important because it starts to resolve some of that policy conflict as will our partnership conversations.
‘And it’s really important that the States is open and transparent about that and lets the public know what it is doing.’
Speaking on the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast, out today, Deputy Dudley-Owen said that ‘imperfections’ that she had identified in the agreement revolved around the support given to the colleges, which offered them little long-term certainty and was imperfect, given the States’ vote in 2017 to remove selection, while the colleges still operated their own ‘broadly selective system’.
This could also be resolved, she said, with better ‘partnership working’ between the colleges and the States high schools, which she described as ‘a reframing of the relationship’ not dependent on the general grant, forming a really constructive, positive, forward-looking relationship for the benefit of the children.
‘Because this is what it’s all about, isn’t it?’
She said that this would typically be at an operational level could include sharing classes, but also working together over staff recruitment and retention and training.
‘Ultimately collaboration together can enrich the experiences and networks of staff, and at an individual schools level, you start to look at projects, information sharing, and how students can be working together on some of those subject.
‘All of these are there for the taking – they are opportunities which need to be looked at and see how better collaboration can lead to excellent results.’
