Education has lost sight of 'fundamental objective'
AS HAS sadly become customary, there is a fundamental and very dangerous problem with the Education policy letter right from the start. It is the same problem that so many of our elected officials 'forget' about, namely that they are there to do the will of the people, not to bend the people to their will.
Once they have lost sight of this fundamental objective, you can kiss goodbye to democracy. It is the primary reason that so few people can be bothered to engage with politics.
If you go out at great length and cost to consult the electorate about what policy should be, then you should take their views into account.
In this case, Q1 of the consultation shows a clear majority in favour of retaining the 11-plus.
And not just a majority, the people in favour of retaining the 11-plus outnumber all the others combined.
At this point the Education Department should have put down their pens.
However we knew from the outset that the Education Department favoured getting rid of the 11-plus and rebuilding La Mare de Carteret and all this policy letter does is seek, in as many words, and with as much confusion as possible, to justify their original proposition.
Even if you agree with their proposals, it is demonstrably not democratic and the response, the only response, from deputies that wish to do the will of the people, must be to throw it out.
I find this very sad because I am in favour of scrapping the 11-plus, but not at the price of democracy.
There is a clear lesson here for the forthcoming election. Deputies-elect who cannot unequivocally undertake to consult with the electorate and to vote accordingly, whatever their own views might be, should not get your vote.
PETER ROSE,
Les Anguillieres,
Route de la Rocque,
St Peter's.
