Perfect is not always practical

There is no consensus about which three schools should operate and whether a sixth-form should be separate or integrated into one of the schools.

And it would create three schools of varying sizes, facilities and opportunities.

It is not the perfect solution.

Those children who have to move to the sixth-form college after GCSEs will have a different experience to those embedded at an 11-18 site.

All of this crosses Education’s vivid red lines about equality of opportunity.

But is that reason enough to reject another look at a three-school option? For the one-school-two-sites system is far from perfect itself.

The colleges are not equal. Geography alone restricts Les Beaucamps in ways that it does not the Baubigny site.

The buildings are not the same age, nor of the same configuration.

And the committee has yet to answer fears about how so many pupils are going to arrive and leave each day without causing traffic chaos.

Education has also failed to convince teachers that there is enough interior and exterior space for the two colleges to function well.

And it certainly has not persuaded the public about the value of bigger schools.

Without a perfect solution, the question becomes whether the States can simply plough on regardless? Can it ignore the weight of public and professional opinion demanding a re-think?

Can it afford to ignore the likely capital cost savings of small extensions in a three-school model? And can it ignore the traffic benefits of smaller schools?

The committee worries about a postcode lottery. And it is true that students in one part of the island will not follow the same path as those elsewhere.

Yet for some, who would benefit from moving schools at 16, it may be better. 11-18 is not a panacea.

Education sees equality of opportunity as the backbone of its proposals. Same uniform, same school name, same GCSEs, same teachers from start to finish. It is a utopia of equivalence.

Many islanders are less ideological. They want a practical solution that offers a fair educational system at a reasonable cost.

Perfection is not always possible.