Students rally support against two-school model

Tuesday 23 January 2018

Two students at La Mare de Carteret High School are "going viral" as their efforts to try and save their school gather support across the island.

Matt Bougourd has written a post on social media, tearing in to the plans to move to a two-school model of secondary education, while Ieva Tulie has organised a petition to try and reverse that decision.

15 year old Matt was in the public gallery of the States chamber for some of the debate last week and says he was "disgusted".

He posted on Facebook saying that over the last 25 years, since the redevelopment of the school was first discussed, there has been a lot of wasted time which could have been better spent improving the island's "failing travel links", tackling the "increase in food banks" and "lowering living costs".

The teenager questioned whether the so called 'gang of four' "have any knowledge on education what's so ever?" Matt also said that Deputy Matt Fallaize and Deputy Richard Graham "have the cheek to suggest (they) have spoken to the young people" when in actual fact he says they only spoke to him and other students when he approached them to interview them for the La Mare de Carteret High school radio station Waves.

Matt says he is worried about the chaotic nature of the ensuing changes when the two-school model is introduced.

Pictured: Matt's post on Facebook. You can read it in full here. 

Speaking to Express, Matt said he wasn't surprised his post went viral, having been seen by thousands of people on a number of public groups on Facebook:

"I think a lot of people are angry right now, and rightly so. I went to the debate on Thursday and what I was hearing was dire and embarrassing. I was not surprised by the outcome of this debate, nor was I surprised by how most of these members have hidden under the decision of which they have made. This has taken 25 years to reach a decision. If there is one thing this government is good at it is stalling, then eventually coming to a conclusion that our polls have shown that 81% of the public do not agree with'.

He says students and staff have been promised for decades the school will be redeveloped: "I have not been here 25 years, however, I have heard teachers have been told since they started working at La Mare that "the spade would be in the ground soon". This debate has been going on all my life and it really does not do justice to the wonderful place that Guernsey can be. And a wonderful place Guernsey can potentially aspire be. I could not tell you about the La Mare's prospects, however, what I can tell you is that this debate is about more then just La Mare. This is about whether we want 2 or 3 schools. And I can assure you that almost all the teaching staff (at La Mare at least) want 3. Most of my fellow students have given up on this and had done so a long time ago, why? Because this has constantly been stalled on and constantly been hurled under the rug for the next government".

Fellow La Mare de Carteret student Ieva, launched a petition shortly after the decision was made to go to a two-school model of secondary education.

The petition has been set up "to prove that the majority of the people living in Guernsey do not want nor need a 2 school model".

The 14 year old told Express she launched the petition to show the majority of the public do not want a two-school model on Friday evening, just hours after the debate ended: "The response has been massive hitting more than 650 signs in just two days and I have no doubt that it will continue to increase". 

Ieva continued: "I'm not expecting great things from the petition just at this moment, but I do believe that it can help to draw in the wants of the public to the deputies".

Both Matt and Ieva had spoken to members of the so-called 'gang of four' ahead of the debate last week, as well as interviewing the former President and Deputy President of the Committee for Education, Sport and Culture. They spoke with deputies Graham, Meerveld and Le Pelley for their school radio station.

Matt said: "not once did Deputy Graham ask me about my opinions on the education system. Nor did he ever ask me on my opinions on the 2 or 3 school models. Instead I had to ask him for his opinions, I had to ask him more about this model. And I had to voice my concerns. So saying you have spoken to the students, takes some cheek. On the other hand, Deputy Meerved and Deputy Le Pelley have kept in touch and has spoken to us about this, and asked questions etc. That shows you the different campaigning styles. Out of the two, you got the real feeling that one cared about the students' opinions more then the other. As I said in my post, this government seems so out of touch with what real Guernsey people want. With what is really lacking in our Island. And this government seems so out of touch with the people of Guernsey".

Ieva added: "I certainly believe that this petition can provide hope to many. Whether or not it will impact the decision no-one can predict at this point".