The Assembly agreed legal changes this week to set up statutory school boards and rejected a sursis to delay until their role and responsibilities were agreed at a later date.
Several deputies are now discussing possible amendments to the next phase of the law amid concerns that the draft text published last month would limit the powers of the school boards and autonomy in the future.
Education president Paul Montague confirmed that his committee was also involved in talks about amendments to the ordinance which it submitted on 15 August, ahead of a debate on it in the Assembly on 25 September.
‘We are keen to listen to feedback from the whole Assembly and are looking to help deputies further understand what our position is ahead of the ordinance being laid later this month,’ said Deputy Montague.
‘Along with other colleagues, we are considering a possible amendment to the ordinance to ensure that it can achieve the goal that many of us share.’
He assured the States this week that he wanted schools to operate with ‘significantly more autonomy’ and to limit the operational control of his committee and the Education Office.
Scrutiny president Andy Sloan voted for Education’s primary legislation on school boards in the States on Wednesday but was concerned about the more detailed ordinance.
He said that he would submit an amendment to the ordinance if Education did not agree to make changes to provide school boards with a clear purpose.
‘Without it, they risk either trying to run schools day-to-day, which is the head teacher’s job, or ending up as powerless talking shops,’ said Deputy Sloan.
‘For school boards to work, their purpose has to be simple and clear – strategic leadership and accountability in the interests of pupils.’
He said it would mirror best practice elsewhere for the ordinance to make it clear that school boards should be responsible for ‘setting the vision and ethos of the school, holding school leaders to account, overseeing finances, and ensuring the voices of parents, pupils, staff and the community are heard’.
In its current form, the draft ordinance would allow Education alone to decide the role of school boards, remove their responsibilities at any time, and appoint most of their members.
Education officials would be allowed to sit as members of school boards, but deputies would be precluded. The director of Education would be entitled to attend any school board meeting. Members of school boards would not be entitled to sit on panels which appoint school leaders, unlike members of existing parochial school management committees which Education wants to scrap.
The Education Committee met on Thursday afternoon and discussed whether it could make changes to the ordinance to maintain majority support in the Assembly in favour of its current approach to school governance.
Haley Camp, who led the defeated sursis in the Assembly, was concerned that the approval of the primary legislation this week would effectively prevent the devolution of powers to school boards, even if amendments were made to the next phase of the law.
‘My current view is that we do need to amend the Education Law as it currently would not permit any devolution of functions to the school governance boards, and nor are those boards incorporated bodies capable of absorbing devolved powers,’ said Deputy Camp.
‘All functions rest within the Education Committee under the primary legislation, which could not be changed by delegating powers under the ordinance.’
Talks are expected to continue next week on trying to find an agreed way forward before a deadline of 17 September, which affects any amendments to the draft ordinance submitted by deputies who are not members of the Education Committee.
Education president Deputy Paul Montague is our first guest in a new series of extended interviews with deputies which will be available from next week on the Guernsey Press Politics Podcast feed.
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