Don’t rush into a bad decision just to end uncertainty
EDUCATION president Matt Fallaize has accused those behind the requete of having no alternative proposals or solutions, but it would appear that he cannot have understood the requete’s content or intent. It is made clear that it is intended that there be a pause in implementation of ESC’s plans so that options can be reviewed and given careful consideration in an informed manner. It is risible that he is now claiming that the requete fails to provide such a direction, when it was his own amendment laid two years ago that lacked the detail necessary for the States to make an informed decision. It is indeed unfortunate that the States did not at that time recognise that gross deficiency.
Had he and the rest of the present ESC committee not hijacked the well-developed and detailed proposals prepared by the former ESC under president Deputy Paul Le Pelley, the island would have been well on the way to implementing the new education system with three schools and retention of the excellent sixth form centre. Instead, there has been a two-year delay for which the present ESC are wholly responsible. Their ‘alternative model’ put forward in December 2017 contained insufficient detail for an informed decision. It is only now that details are starting to emerge that the public, and let’s hope the States, now realise how ill-conceived and unworkable the two-school plan was.
The blame for the mess we are now in, and no doubt additional expense, must be squarely laid at the door of Deputy Fallaize and the ESC members. He claims that the requete is ‘based on a fantasy’, but it is his own plan which is the fantasy. Let us please return to realism, pause and review. It is so important; decisions made now could affect generations of the island’s schoolchildren. Let the States not be rushed into a bad decision purely in the interest of resolving uncertainty in the short term, when a delay of a few months could result in something so much better for the long term.
NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD.