Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez is asking for more information about the declining number of students and withdrawal of courses once the centre moves to La Mare de Carteret in September.
Education president Andrea Dudley-Owen, who recently announced a one-year pause to the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) because of low student numbers, must provide written replies by 26 April.
‘I’m unapologetic in my view that Guernsey students should have the best possible educational opportunities we can give them, irrespective of whether they are in state education or private, and breadth of curriculum choice is fundamentally important in that respect,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.
‘If this is, as I suspect, likely to be symptomatic of a long-term reduction in curriculum choice, it’s a serious issue.’
Education said last week that it would be infeasible to offer the IBDP to Year 12 from September after only 14 students signed up. It hopes to increase the level of interest in the next few months before deciding whether to restart the course in September 2026.
Deputy de Sausmarez has submitted a total of eight written questions to Education, Sport & Culture. Four of them relate to the IBDP.
She wants to know the minimum number of students required to run the IBDP, what the chances are of it being restarted, and the impact on finances and staffing of not offering the course.
‘I’m concerned that the IBDP has suddenly been withdrawn when some of those students will have chosen the sixth form centre precisely because it was the only place in Guernsey to offer it,’ said Deputy de Sausmarez.
‘It must be a real kick in the teeth for young people who had planned their future around this qualification and the doors it would have opened for them. These will include some of our brightest and most capable students and many of their predecessors have historically gone on to Oxbridge and other exceptional achievements.’
The sixth form centre is understood to have suffered a drop in applications since ESC announced that it would move from Les Varendes this summer and be run as a standalone facility in the refurbished former secondary school building at La Mare until at least 2029.
Deputy de Sausmarez has asked for the estimated number of students at the centre from September and the projected number over the next 10 years.
She has also asked for data about claims that more parents are now moving children at the end of Year 11 from States schools into the grant-aided colleges’ sixth forms, as the Guernsey Press reports today on the significant growth of at least one of them.
She was concerned that this was a direct result of the States’ sixth form offer becoming less attractive to students entering Year 12 from September.
‘This year group is also having to contend with the relocation of the sixth form from its modern, purpose-built centre into a building that has been considered not fit for purpose for decades now – a move that was supposed to be temporary but looks increasingly likely to remain in stasis for many years to come,’ she said
‘With student numbers projected to decline sharply, the problems facing post-16 education look likely to intensify in the coming years.
‘This situation was not inevitable. It’s the consequence of conscious political decisions made by the States when they chose to ignore my and others’ warnings that this way of structuring the education system would reduce curriculum choice for students, and so it has come to pass.’
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