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Students working in freezing temporary buildings, machinery being covered up due to leaky roofs, and years of delay and uncertainty means now is not the time to put the brakes on, or modify, post-16 education plans, the ESC President has said.
Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen spent much of her update statement yesterday laying out the benefits of her committee's transformation plan, while sounding the alarm on the negatives impacts of further delay, including the deteriorating condition of the Guernsey Institute’s facilities.
“We are operating from patched up buildings described by an external expert quite some time ago as amongst the worst in the UK for the delivery of post-16 education", she said.
“Are we really prepared to say that these are suitable learning environments to inspire the next generation of engineers, electricians, child-care providers, public sector workers?”
She implored politicians, and the media, to not make the impending capital projects debate in July out as a binary choice between new schools or a modernised hospital, a decision she labeled an “unenviable task”.
ESC was fast running out of suitable buildings with an education system that needs to “move forwards”, she added.
Pictured: P&R are recommending that phase two of the Princess Elizabeth Hospital modernisation project is paused until at least 2025.
Policy & Resources, which has recommended the hospital project is delayed until the next political term, says both projects cannot be completed simultaneously due to costs and capacity within the construction industry. But several deputies, including those on Health & Social Care, have expressed dismay with the suggestion and see the hospital as the priority.
“Some colleagues seem determined to undermine the Transforming Education Programme,” Deputy Dudley-Owen said. “I ask members to stick to facts and not denigrate the well-considered States-approved plans… let's drop the nonsense that this programme merely and needlessly moves the sixth form a few metres down the road at some gargantuan cost."
The States agreed in 2021 to move all post-16 studies to Les Ozouets with new facilities for the Guernsey Institute, and a dedicated standalone sixth form centre for States school students.
“We are creating a mature, adult learning environment which prepares all post-16 students for their next steps into education or the world of work, with countless new educational opportunities, and where there is true fairness and parity of esteem for different educational pathways,” Deputy Dudley-Owen said.
The decision to terminate the build contract for the site with beleaguered contractor RG Falla was the right one, she added, given the collapse of the firm and its umbrella company, the Garenne Group.
“But an issue with a contractor should not be misinterpreted as an issue with the scheme itself. We have a sound design at the advanced RIBA 4 stage, and planning permission is in place,” she argued.
Pictured: Sixth Form Studies will temporarily move to La Mare De Carteret until a permanent site is built under ESC's plans.
The Committee has also sought independent advice over its controversial suggestions to temporarily house A-level and IB studies at La Mare De Carteret High School. That advice validated that the site will be “the best available interim home for the Sixth Form Centre, from both financial and educational perspectives”.
But Deputy Dudley-Owen said it “must only be” a temporary solution before a permanent move of all post-16 studies to bespoke facilities at Les Ozouets.
The interim solution is one of the core ways to ensure the wider project is completed as planned, she added.
Jersey and UK construction firms consulted for Les Ozouets build
La Mare de Carteret 6th Form Centre
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