Let the Education committee get on with the task

I REFER to the letter in Tuesday 11 February’s Guernsey Press (Why change the system?) in favour of selection. Whatever our feelings on the subject, we have already discontinued this system of education and cannot just reverse the process: apart from anything else, what happens to the children who are already in a non-selective cohort? Will we have to make them sit a 12-plus or 13-plus test, and send them in different directions from their friends part-way through their secondary education?

I, too, was a Grammar School pupil and have taught in both systems, but I never, at any point, felt that this was a fair method; for 75% of children to be told at the age of 11 that they are failures – for that is undoubtedly how it is perceived by them and all around them – is neither morally acceptable nor academically productive. By all means (and this is not difficult) set where appropriate, as the agreed system will, but don’t segregate and discriminate against children based on an outdated and discredited test – or their parents’ ability to pay for coaching.

I make a plea for common sense: let the Education committee get on with the task in hand, with amendments to address the concerns of certain sections of the community, without receiving continual negative comments and even totally unacceptable personal abuse directed at themselves and their families. What kind of community are we in tolerating such mob-like behaviour?

I have withheld my name and address for the precise reason mentioned above, as I have grandchildren in the primary school system and will not risk any harm coming to them from those opposing my personal opinions; a sad reflection of our times.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD.