Education committee should do its homework

I WAS greatly disappointed to hear of a visit from the Committee for Education Sport and Culture to the Sixth Form Centre today to discuss plans for the future of the education provision on our islands with the Senior Leadership Team of pupils. Might I suggest that next time they visit the school they are more prepared before they go to speak to our aspiring young professionals. They asked such questions as ‘ So, what exactly is the IB and why do you think we should continue funding it?’ This was taken as a genuine insult by pupils who are currently studying the IB. Other questions such as ‘Why do you need to go off island to train as a doctor – why not just stay here and train as a nurse?’ and ‘Why do you want to go to university to study biology – why don’t you want to stay here and work in finance?’. It is so narrow-minded and ill-informed of the committee that the pupils were certainly aggrieved. Might I suggest to the head of the committee that her team do their homework before engaging with the aspiring young medics and scientists of the future. After all we should be encouraging our young people to engage in science as they might just be involved in discovering a vaccine.