Local education structure was kicked out in England more than 30 years ago
TEN years ago, because of revelations of poor GCSE results in some schools, I was asked to undertake a ‘Review of Education Services in Guernsey’. Following the publication of the review I was told that the report was well received by Guernsey’s teachers, by most island politicians, and importantly, many parents. One outcome of the review was that GCSE results of the individual schools would no longer be kept secret by the island education department.
But over the last 10 years precious little else has happened. The antiquated Guernsey Education Law has still not been revised and is several decades out of date. Apart from the private schools, in Guernsey there are still no school governing bodies, and still no local management of schools.
LMS was a key part of the UK 1988 Education Act and allowed state schools in England to be taken out of the financial control of the local authorities. Finance, based largely on pupil numbers and ages, was instead passed directly to the head teacher and the school governing body. At the time it was seen as an education revolution – today LMS is the norm. The LEAs disliked LMS as over time they lost a great deal of power, control and patronage.
However, the ability of head teachers to run their schools with the support of a locally recruited board of governors has been proven by organisations such as Ofsted to be a key factor in improving school performance and pupil attainment. LMS has been a major success for over 30 years and today neither the Labour nor Conservative parties would want to change it. Indeed, the top 100 state schools in England now achieve similar exam results to most of the leading independent schools.
All schools have different needs and are in an infinitely better position to use the devolved funding and school-based leadership than any local LEA. In practice LMS is about making better use of the finance previously controlled and directed by the LEA. LMS is not about spending more money; it is about getting better value and less wastage. LMS is not about running schools as a business. It is about running schools in a more business-like way for the ultimate benefit of the pupils.
The private schools in Guernsey have had this type of system for decades. For example, the income for Elizabeth College comes mainly from parental fees, plus occasional donations from former pupils, etc. The head teacher, governing body, bursar and senior staff then jointly decide the priorities for the forthcoming year, and how the income is best spent within the school to further improve educational outcomes. There are profound differences between the devolved education structure in England that gives head teachers direct responsibility for budgets, performance, and teacher appointments, and the totally centralised, out of date, bureaucratic Guernsey system.
Why has Guernsey retained an education structure that was kicked out in England over 30 years ago? Why are there still no governing bodies in the island schools? Why do Guernsey politicians continue to give such enormous power to a handful of senior civil servants in the island education department?
In my review of education in 2011, I had individual meetings with every education board member and asked the above questions. One deputy thought LMS was a bank. None of the other deputies could answer my questions – or perhaps, didn’t want to answer.
The real losers in all of this are of course the children of Guernsey – and that should not be allowed to happen.
DENIS MULKERRIN, MA CBE.