Education journey has a long way to go

Its demise was accepted long before October’s general election when voters hammered in the nails.

The ‘pause and review’ requete was a flawed mechanism to shelve the project while the cast of deputies was changed.

The pause served its purpose but left the new Education committee with a review headache. Rightly, it does not want to be constrained by the last Assembly but is not prepared to go back to the States to get the review rescinded. That would entail a risky pre-emptive debate.

The answer has been an attempt to mould the review into something more acceptable. A ‘broader and more objective approach’ factoring in the existing four-school system as well as all the various permutations of three schools.

That does not mean the four-school system is back in play. It is just something to make the cost of the favoured three-school system more palatable.

For while the committee is right when it says the public and teaching staff would not countenance a return to the two-school proposal it is still embarrassing if the capital and annual costs of the rejected system are tens of millions lower.

It does not fit the revisionist narrative that two schools was the worst idea ever with no redeeming features and was only ever supported by four deluded and departed deputies.

Education is probably also right that its predecessor foresaw the future and hurried out the interim review before the election because it knew there was a good chance the report would be buried.

Pushing such politics aside, is the review useful? Yes. It breaks down the various three-school options and gives some indication of what the likely pros and cons are.

Is it definitive? No. It was never meant to be. There is much yet to be learned, including what the professionals think, how much each option will cost each year in staffing, maintenance etc. and, crucially, what would be best for pupils.

More information will come in time. Education’s immediate task is to convince islanders that the process is still one of honest discovery, as envisaged by the original requete.