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An Education, Sport & Culture Committee Member has cast doubts on the benefits of his board's proposed "re-organisation" of local schooling, saying that the sixth form should stay where it is in a u-turn on his pre-election statements.
ESC released its £43.5m plans for secondary and post-16 education on Friday afternoon.
In the current economic climate, Deputy Andy Cameron said he cannot countenance building a new combined post-16 centre, given that it accounts for a large proportion of the proposal's £29m construction costs. He also now believes that doing so would be "operationally sub-optimal".
Pictured: Deputy Cameron said that co-locating the sixth form with the Guernsey Institute would be "operationally sub-optimal".
It comes less than a year after the first-time deputy set out his support for three 11 to 16 colleges and a separate sixth form centre in his 2020 Election manifesto, saying he believed this to be "the most efficient and cost-effective choice."
“This has been a challenging period and ultimately going against the Committee’s proposal has been an extremely difficult decision, especially so early on in my political career," said Deputy Cameron in a written statement that was sent out instead of giving interviews.
"I have been unable to reconcile my conscience with the direction the Committee has chosen to follow and do not want to regret this decision for the remainder of my term."
He argued that the proposals should feature a “do minimum” option, however, this was opposed by the rest of the Committee.
"I simply feel that a minimal approach to reorganising our 11-18 education system would be better value in the current economic climate when weighed up against any potential benefits of the Committee’s proposals," said Deputy Cameron.
Pictured: Current pupil numbers in the mainstream States schools.
His approach would see the Sixth Form Centre remain at the Les Varendes site, rather than moving it to Les Ozouets.
"Our Sixth Form Centre is very successful, so I cannot see the benefit in moving it," said Deputy Cameron.
"In the current financial climate, in my opinion we should focus these funds on upgrading facilities at Les Varendes and giving Les Beaucamps the extra facilities they will need to cope with the influx of additional students.
"This will cost far less than a brand new sixth form college which will be operational sub-optimal as a stand-alone facility."
Pictured: Deputy Cameron has changed his view on the future of schooling since joining the Committee. Pictured above is an excerpt from his 2020 Manifesto.
In a damning conclusion, he says that if the States is going to invest millions of pounds into education, his Committee's proposal is the wrong way of doing it.
"I attended La Mare de Carteret High School, the Sixth Form Centre and College of FE so I feel very passionate about all three. It was very upsetting to make the difficult decision to recommend the closure of La Mare De Carteret High but I cannot agree to spending a similar amount as it would cost to rebuild LMDC to move the Sixth Form Centre to Les Ozouets.
"Having carefully considered the costs and potential benefits of the proposed model, I think there are better ways of investing in and adding value to secondary education, which is why I could not support those propositions.”
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