‘Wake up Guernsey before it’s too late’

Casting our minds back to the original vote on his consultation on our schooling system [Your schools, your choice], 61% of the population did not want the proposal laid out by the Education committee. This overwhelming vote was totally ignored, the committee in their wisdom knew what was best for the people of Guernsey.

Well it would appear they do not know best.

Why are teachers up in arms about these insane proposals? What in the world does Matt Fallaize think, having the temerity to suggest that teachers must set an example by walking, cycling or even catching the bus to and from school? Perhaps he and his fellow deputy, anti-motorist, climate change obsessed Deputy Barry Brehaut, would like to ride uphill to Les Beaucamps with two large bags of marked homework in addition to their normal possessions to demonstrate how practical this is.

Perhaps they might like to do this in the wet and windy conditions of this winter. Perhaps they could also advise hard-pressed teachers how they will find the extra hours in the day to get on their bikes or catch the bus.

Even apart from this, teachers fear this is a disaster in waiting. It is proposed that a school of currently 450 children will eventually swell to 1,500 and one wonders what calibre of schooling and pupil does he envisage producing with this system? Our children are Guernsey’s future citizens; when all odds are against this dreadful experiment, why are we allowing this to happen to our children?

My brother, a dean of Bath University for many years, says the large schools in England are failing their young pupils, producing unruly behaviour, poor results in their exams, and they are totally unfit to equip youngsters for a future rounded life.

We read in the Guernsey Press Deputy Fallaize’s comment that the two-school system was passed by a vote in the States... but there was no mention of the traffic proposals that have caused the furore against the department’s plans, that would cause such island upheaval that was about to shake Guernsey to its very core.

Then one has to say the traffic assessment is a joke.

Our road system is not capable of carrying the large concentrations of traffic that would be generated by the size of these schools. Narrow lanes naturally produce congestion with a capital ‘c’. Buses, mothers dropping off their children, walkers, cyclists. I wonder what the Living Streets Group feel about the chaos that these foolish, impractical ideas will produce?

Well done the douzaines for speaking out against this foolhardy scheme. It needed some common sense to question and highlight why this is happening.

Wake up Guernsey before it is too late. We are told ‘we must get the first spade in the earth’. More hoodwinking, so their roller coaster can rumble forward, sweeping everything out of its way. Let us stop this nightmare and get back to the tried and tested standards that have proved themselves in the past.

We are living in Guernsey, once the envy of many countries with its first-class education system.

JENNIE DOREY

Les Queux,

Ruette des Effards,

Castel,

Guernsey, GY5 7DQ.