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With less than a week to go until plans for the future of secondary education in Guernsey are expected to be announced, the former Education President and Vice President have tried to throw a spanner in the works.
Deputy Paul Le Pelley, and Deputy Carl Meerveld, have issued an open letter outlining their concerns while heavily referencing their defeated plans for a three school model.
Titled, 'a statement of concerns', Deputies Le Pelley and Meerveld said they want "confirmation that what will be presented shortly will provide the detail needed to reassure the public that the two-school model, subsequently described as one-school on two sites (federated model) is achievable and will deliver the benefits which the current committee persuaded the States Assembly it would."
Deputies Le Pelley and Meerveld's said they want assurances that the plans being released next week will be "as detailed in costings, implementation timelines and transition modelling as the three-school model published by the previous committee on October 14, 2017."
Pictured: Deputy Paul Le Pelley. His open letter can be read here.
Those plans were met with some criticism, particularly over the proposals for post 16 education, with Deputies Matt Fallaize, Richard Graham, Rhian Tooley and Mark Dorey working on their own plans for the two-school model which was accepted by the States earlier this year. Deputy Peter Roffey was elected to join them all on the new ESC board in February of this year.
Deputies Le Pelley and Meerveld said that as the now ESC board have been working on their plans for the two-school model for 16 months, they have had "more than enough time to have formulated a comprehensive and detailed plan equivalent to the three-school plan published by the previous Committee more than a year ago."
Pictured: Deputy Carl Meerveld. His open letter can be read in full here.
The statement, which you can read in full here, also raised concerns about the impact of ongoing debate over the future of secondary education on the wider economy.
Earlier this month the IoD heard the new head of Locate Guernsey speak about why some wealthy families won't move to the island because they can't get their children into the private colleges. Now, Deputies Le Pelley and Meerveld have said similar.
"We have heard many complaints from local businesses that the uncertainties surrounding our education system are discouraging potential employees with children from accepting positions in Guernsey, hindering business development, reducing productivity and ultimately undermining our economy."
They also raised concerns about staffing; claiming many teachers have left their posts.
"It is essential for current and future generations of young people, our teaching professionals and our economy that these uncertainties are addressed by the current ESC committee with comprehensive and detailed proposals equivalent to those presented by the previous committee," the pair said.
Pictured: The President of ESC, Deputy Matt Fallaize.
Deputy Fallaize has described the open letter as "all very predictable" adding that "some members of the previous Committee just can’t let go and they are determined to refight old battles."
He also thinks most people will see the statement in the same way and said it won't detract from the current ESC committee's work.
"They were able to persuade only eight other deputies to support them whereas our proposals for one secondary school operating in two 11-18 colleges were supported by 22 other deputies," said Deputy Fallaize. "At some point I hope for their sakes that the members of the previous Committee can come to terms with this and move on.
"Our responsibility is to provide the very best education system possible for students, not just today but for the years and decades ahead, and this is the task on which we are focused. The statement by the two deputies is an attempt to divert us from this task but it will not succeed."
Deputy Fallaize said work on the so-called 'two-school model' is continuing as planned and further details will be announced next week, before the October half term, as promised.
"In July we fulfilled our commitment to advise parents of current year six students which secondary school they will attend from September next year. At the same time we made a commitment that before the October half term we would announce the two sites to be used for secondary education in the future and the full transition model for all students and next week we will fulfil this commitment. Our announcement next week will also provide greater certainty for teachers and a commitment to consult with the wider community on some of the finer details of the new secondary model."
The open letter written by Deputies Le Pelley and Meerveld can be read here.
Pictured top: Deputy Matt Fallaize and Deputy Paul Le Pelley.
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