Education review risks further delay

What will be built and when should have been questions resolved years ago in the relative calm of architects' offices, not in a Punch and Judy booth with two opposing political departments.

The refusal until yesterday to make public a vital report about the development has only added to the sense that the island's political system is not involving the very people to whom the new schools mean most.

Such a 'we know best' attitude smacks of a political elite that worries more about how the report will be interpreted, what the headlines will be and who it will favour than a genuine desire to find a solution.

And such secrecy has inevitably led to ill-informed speculation about which parts of the project might be at risk.

These are crucial questions for residents of the area and parents across the island. It is simply not good enough for government to be so ill-prepared on such a major project that the debate keeps getting pushed further down the road.

And today it appears that uncertainty could get far worse. Treasury, it seems, are using the report to push for the whole education system to be re-examined before any firm decision can be made on La Mare.

That makes the two schools hostages to fortune on issues as divisive and complex as the 11-plus and the future of the Grammar School.

Clearly the department has learned nothing from the personal tax and benefits report where its 41-point 'package' had to be unwrapped because it was filled to bursting with proposals to change everything from universal benefits to pensions and GST.

It was too much for the States to handle and put at risk making any progress on the vital issue of how to cope with an ageing population.

With that in mind what faith can La Mare pupils and parents have that attempts to draw up an all-encompassing plan for education beyond the existing 'Vision' will not add years to the development of the new schools and even risk derailing the whole project?