Education claims it is being "dragged backwards" by political opponents

Tuesday 23 March 2021

The Education office is "seriously depleted" and there is a "huge amount of work" needed to repair relationships with staff, according to the ESC Committee, in a fiery statement aimed at political colleagues past and present.

The Education, Sport & Culture Committee has branded an amendment by Deputies Tina Bury and Adrian Gabriel as an attempt to "re-insert the much-maligned two-school model front and centre to the debate" on the future of secondary and post-16 education.

The two deputies are seeking a commitment by ESC that all educational models stipulated by the 'pause and review, plus any others the committee chooses to add, will be published so that an "informed, evidence-based decision" can be made, aided by a like-for-like comparison. 

ESC's own proposal to 'clear the decks' of previous States' resolutions, allowing them to proceed "unencumbered" by the currently-paused two-school model, will be debated later this week. 

President Andrea Dudley-Owen described the amendment as unnecessary, arguing that her committee has already signalled its intent to publish a policy letter which will outline its recommendations to the States. She says that policy letter will evidence "why three 11-16 schools and a post-16 campus is right for Guernsey". 

Pictured: ESC says the two-school model proposed by its predecessors, and agreed by the States, "needs to be consigned to history". 

"The amendment brings the two school model back, front and centre to discussions, dragging us backwards, as a small number of our colleagues in the States this term seem committed to doing," she said.

"We have listened carefully to the voice of the community over the last 18 months on this emotive subject, and what we have heard is that the two-school model is completely at odds with what the community, including the majority of secondary school staff, want.  

"The two-school model needs to be consigned to history and as the Committee that has been elected to lead this work - we won’t budge on that." 

The ESC President reported that her committee had inherited a "huge amount of work" to do with Education staff. Express has asked the Committee to qualify the comments made in Deputy Dudley-Owen's press statement. 

"I was shocked by the changes I found in Education when I returned to the Committee after an absence of two-and-a-half years," she said in a media release. 

"Past political decisions have not served Guernsey well and there is a huge amount of work for us to do, repairing relationships with staff and strengthening a seriously depleted Education office. This Committee wants to move forward and does not want to be delayed by reigniting any debate on the feasibility of two schools when it has been so roundly rejected. 

An oversimplification of my amendment that completely misses its point.

The review, that the ESC President herself championed, is not about any one model: it's to help understand the possibilities and necessary compromises we will have to choose between. https://t.co/BBV6xQZJcG

— Tina Bury (@MsTinaBury) March 22, 2021

"The Pause & Review Requete was clear, calling for a broad, comprehensive review. Instead the previous Committee returned to the States in a rush to straight-jacket itself into a review, which looked to many as an intention to pre-determine the outcome."

Amendment proposer Deputy Bury described this press statement as an "oversimplification of the amendment that completely misses its point."

"The review is not about any one model: it's to help understand the possibilities and necessary compromises we will have to choose between," she said. 

Like his Committee President, ESC number two Deputy Bob Murray alleged that some political colleagues were trying to halt the committee's progress. 

"I think it’s fair to say that no other Committee so far this term has faced similar attempts to drag it back to the work of its predecessors. In our case, predecessors who, I might add, faced more opposition to their plans than any Committee in recent history," he said. 

Pictured: Deputy Murray has accused some fellow States' members of dragging his committee backwards.  

“These are strange times but the Committee remains focused on delivering the change we were elected to do – change that the vast majority of States Members have already committed to given so many members signalled a preference for a three-school model in their manifestos. 

"Now is not the time for moving backwards and opening up the same discussions again. This is the time to take care of the future of Guernsey’s education provision and drive it forward in an holistic way.”