Education's school proposals delayed for staff engagement

Wednesday 31 March 2021

Education, Sport and Culture has pushed back the planned publication of its policy letter on the future of secondary education to allow for two further “phases” of engagement with staff.

Due to lockdown restrictions, the Committee said it was impossible to hold face-to-face engagement sessions with staff in secondary schools and the Guernsey Institute. The move to hold the debate on the Government Work Plan last week delayed this opportunity further.

To allow for the Committee to meet with staff, the ESC Policy letter - originally pencilled in for 10 May - has been delayed until 28 May.

Just last week, an education union expressed concerns about the consultation carried out to date, which it said had been neither meaningful nor informed. 

Pictured: The current ESC committee favours a 3-school model plus the development of a post-16 campus.

The decision comes after last week’s fraught debate on an amendment, which sought guarantees that ESC would publish all the evidence and working behind its decision. 

The first stage of this engagement will take place after the Easter holidays and see staff from all the secondary schools and the Guernsey Institute meet with the committee.

The second stage will be a presentation held in May. It will outline the policy letter prior to it being published and explain its recommendations.

In an unprecedented move, ESC intends to live stream its recommendations to the public before the policy letter is published. 

Pictured: The second stage presentation will also be delivered to the public as a live-streamed event on the States of Guernsey Facebook page.

“From the start, we have been very clear on the importance of engaging with key stakeholders,” said President of ESC, Deputy Andrea Dudley-Owen.

“A combination of lockdown making face-to-face engagement impossible and the impact of the sensible delay in the States debating the Government Work Plan has meant we simply ran out of time to engage with staff in the way we wanted to.”

The committee has decided to deliver the message first hand. 

“By live-streaming the presentation in a similar manner to that which has been so successful for Covid-19 briefings we are trying to ensure everyone who wants to has the opportunity to hear first-hand from the Committee,” she said.

Pictured: Deputy Gavin St Pier has raised concerns about the lack of staff engagement in a series of written questions, the answers to which can read in full HERE.