Education committee should have resigned
A BRIEF comment on the debate that will take place this week, which takes no account of the page in the Guernsey Press on Saturday 7 January in connection with a letter, as I have deliberately not read them. There is every reason for members of the States of Guernsey to bring a motion of no-confidence in a States committee if it is felt appropriate to do so. As a result of the majority of the current members of the Committee for Education, Sport & Leisure procrastinating over the implementation of States resolutions, and because they have stated so often that they do not agree with the one concerning non-selection at 11-plus, as well as the committee underperforming with regard to pre-school education and local management of schools, they should have resigned long since.
By not doing so, they are behaving like spoilt children who cannot get their own way and it is up to the States to ensure that the will of that body is carried out.
It was disappointing to see that Deputy Dudley-Owen was pressured to join deputies de Lisle and Le Pelley in voting to support the change.
Selection at 11-plus has been wrong for so many reasons, including the understanding now of the different intelligences and how they develop, the manner in which young people have been divided in a way which encourages some members of the community to appear to believe that there are those who deserve 'better' than others, the attempts of some parents to 'hot-house' their children and the ignoring of the views of the majority of those who carry out the teaching in our States schools.
All the head teachers of those schools realise the damage that is done, just as the States heads did more than 15 years ago when they signed an advertisement in the Guernsey Press to support the removal of selection at 11-plus at that time (paid for by a public-spirited believer in the change which was before the States).
My own long teaching experience confirmed many, many years ago that the 11-plus was anathema to opportunity for all. Ensuring young people's confidence and self-respect were built up in those who 'failed' was so important in order for them to achieve their potential and perhaps outstrip whose who 'passed', that teachers' work was not only in their subject matter but also in wider issues.
One of those issues is the setting of students so that they learn with others of similar ability in a particular subject, which may not be the same in another area of the curriculum.
That method of organising students is in use already and will be able to be further developed when the necessary changes take place to the organisation of our secondary education.
JENNY TASKER,
Belmont Rise,
Les Croutes,
St Peter Port.