Why did committee not trust teacher-led survey?
I REPLY to some of the online comments questioning the validity of the teachers' survey which follow the article http://guernseypress.com/news/2016/06/27/teachers-poll-shows-more-than-70-against-selection/ So there we have it, the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture carried out its very own survey of education professionals asking them, 'Are you in favour of selection by ability at age 11 for admission to secondary school?' requiring a simple 'yes' or 'no' answer. So we waited to see if their results were going to be similar to the survey carried out by the teachers themselves a couple of weeks earlier (which was 71% against selection). Only then would we know if the claim that there was a 50/50 teachers' split on selection was true or not.
Following the teacher-led survey results, I told a friend that I was so confident Paul Le Pelley's results would not show a 50/50 split, I would eat my hat garnished with Ukrainian pickled gherkins if they did.
Well now, we have an almost an identical result, with Paul Le Pelley's survey showing 71.8% against selection. But this second result raises many questions.
1. Did Paul Le Pelley not trust the teacher-led survey? If not, why not? Does he trust the teaching profession? Should the teachers trust him with the decisions he will make about the future of education in the island?
2. If we can't trust his 50/50 split claim about teachers' opinions on selection, then can we trust his doorstep poll claim, carried out during his campaigning, that the majority of people were pro-selection?
3. Does this issue have a one-man driven agenda?
JOHN SEMENOWICZ.
Address withheld.
