Strategy faces a real test
ON PAGE SIX today, the Education, Sport & Culture committee outlines its achievements of the past two years. Instinctively, it feels as though it has summed up its priorities precisely in the first two paragraphs.
After a troubled period for Education in the life of the States from 2016-20, the committee, and States members more broadly, absolutely had to move on quickly and resolve the future design and construction of secondary and post-16 education in the island.
This was achieved. Whether it’s the optimal model is still to be proved, but the government has got that one off its back, and moved on.
The other priority is the adoption of its own Education Strategy – ‘the work we’re most proud of’ – aligned with new governance measures and soon to be underpinned by a new education law. It’s high-level, to the point that there’s nothing to argue with, although some States members would very much like to debate it.
‘This is a game-changer and our committee is proud to sit behind it.’
The strategy, and where it may take Education, will take on even greater importance as the committee deals now with two reports of ‘failing’ schools from Ofsted inspections.
For those high-level ideals will mean little if they cannot be translated into success in the classroom, and a brighter future for Education’s thousands of young stakeholders.