‘Revolution’ will break more than it mends
WAS it four or was it five years ago I remember writing impassioned letters about the States of Guernsey Education committee? Not the one we have now of course, and perhaps this is why they don’t acknowledge a survey sent out and completed. 2,414 individuals completed the survey. It was a very long and very complicated document which took several hours to complete. Because those of us who bothered to complete it gave the wrong answers (in the view of the committee), someone decided to prove the saying ‘there are lies, damned lies and statistics’, and theorise that if the entire population of Guernsey had answered the survey, then 2,414 was a very small statistic. This spurious argument was in fact used by some otherwise apparently intelligent people. The inarguable fact is that only 2,414 people answered a survey open to all and, therefore, only 2,414 can be counted. The next fact is what was unpalatable to those setting the survey: 61-plus% of those returning the survey said that they wanted selection retained and the Grammar School left alone. I believe that the reason the 61-plus% elected to retain selection was not entirely because they approved of the 11-plus, it was because to have a grammar school at all hinged on having an entrance exam.
There are two points which do not seem iterated frequently, the first being that the 11-plus has become a multiple-choice ‘logic’-based test rather than a knowledge-based test. The basic resistance to the 11-plus seems to be that those who can afford to hire a tutor for their child can give that child an unfair advantage. The answer is obvious, go back to a test based on knowledge which should have been assimilated during a child’s primary education. In that way, every child has the same chance of passing as long as they have attended school, have paid attention to their lessons and have had good and capable teachers.
If a child has difficulties, the teacher could then advise the parents that they should elect not to have their child tested at this time. This would save the child from ‘failure’ and experiencing the stress of taking the examination. It would also allow the parents to perhaps tutor their child and/or pay for private education.
Going back again to the 2,414 people that completed the questionnaire, why did the States of Guernsey ignore the majority vote? We are told that this one school in two massive campuses is ‘revolutionary’. This revolution will break much more than it will mend. Does the States of Guernsey have a mandate to proceed with this scheme? The last election had a vast tranche of voters who wanted the Grammar School to continue in its wonderful work.
It was one States-owned and operated school which was succeeding in educating its pupils so they could pass scholastic examinations and go on, if they wished, to a university. The only States school succeeding is set to be closed by the States of Guernsey in an effort to make all men equal.
There seems to be an appetite amongst States members to disallow failure. That in itself is questionable but not necessarily a bad thing. What is bad is that in not allowing failure in schools, one does not allow for success. Worse, in my view, it does not equip students for the real world outside school. A completely ‘grey’ world would be to many an undesirable outcome.
It is now said that to change plans mid-stream would be irresponsible. Others believe, with equal vehemence, that it is irresponsible to continue along the ‘one-school, two-buildings approach’. Two things are certain; one of the options is the correct option, and the second thing is that our original style of education was working to the extent that the brightest children were given free schooling (at the Grammar School) by a States-funded school. The other fact is that several children received good educations at private schools in States-funded places and those places cost the States considerably less than educating a child in a States school. What ideological, well-intending, but illogical... person decided to do that?
Our children are our future, and it is completely irresponsible to play politics with our future.
ROSIE HENDERSON
Ma Carriere,
Le Petit Bouet,
St Peter Port, GY1 2AN.