Deputies Aidan Matthews and Peter Roffey want to amend the States’ Funding & Investment Plan when it’s debated next week by asking their colleagues to agree that the Committee for Education, Sport & Culture should not “enter into any contractual obligations on behalf of the States or continue with any associated procurement processes nor demolition nor construction of the single post 16 campus described as ‘Sixth Form Centre in a new building at Les Ozouets Campus co-located with The Guernsey Institute’.”
The pair also want ESC to “make such arrangements as necessary to return stability to secondary education with the continuity of provision of Sixth Form education at Les Varendes”.
If ESC doesn’t have the money to do that, then Deputies Matthews and Roffey want Policy & Resources to fund it instead.
Deputy Andrea Dudley Owen says that would cause much wider disruption to her committee’s plans for the future of post-16 education in the Bailiwick though.
Pictured: Deputies Aiden Matthews and Peter Roffey.
The ESC President warned that as the plans for the rebuild of the Sixth Form Centre are tied in with the wider plans for post-16 education at Les Ozouets and any changes to the Sixth Form plans would “stop work on the entire transforming education project”.
“It also includes the work on the campus as well for The Guernsey Institute and leaves us in a state of paralysis, so to speak, and disarray as a result,” she said.
Yesterday, Deputy Dudley-Owen, along with Nick Hynes; the Director of Education, gave a presentation to States Members and key education personnel to ensure everyone has the correct information ahead of next week’s States debate.
Deputy Dudley-Owen said she is concerned about misinformation being shared which could derail her committee’s plans.
“…we are being fettered in our ability to do that by the constant threat of political indecision and changing in decision,” she said.
Pictured: The latest available plans for Les Ozouets campus show a mix of sports facilities, green spaces and parking around numerous buildings, intended to be built adjacent to the Performing Arts Centre.
Only ten States Members attended the presentation but Deputy Dudley-Owen said that is partly down to the large number of her political colleagues who are currently off-island on official business.
“The presentation was specifically to inform members pre-debate. And also it’s an opportunity for us to give an update on the work that we’ve been doing because it is considerable and it is complex and has various different elements.
“The construction part of it is just one of those elements and any changes to the construction have a knock on effect on the implementation of the model which is very far advanced now. So it’s incumbent on us as the Committee that has been tasked to lead the change, the transformation that was agreed by the States two years ago, to allow members the visibility of the progress of the model that they’ve approved.
“And we needed to point out the very serious effects of that amendment and indeed any decision not to fund the investment in our children as we’ve set out and as has been agreed, so we invited State Members to the briefing and we also ensured that educators and educationalists were available.”
Pictured: The proposed development at Les Ozouets would see the current building demolished and replaced with new facilities offering post-16 education across a number of subjects and sectors.
Deputy Dudley-Owen reiterated again how recruitment and retention into teaching roles and other school staff is reliant on offering stability to the sector.
She said some deputies are intent on disrupting the plans and she worries they’re doing so because they are misinformed.
“…I must say that where we have deputies who are continually opposing the direction that education is taking and the decisions of the Committee, then it really is so important for those deputies to understand the facts, not to create their own misrepresentation of things, and that they’re told to come and speak to staff who are in daily contact with our students, understand the difficulties of working in the front line, the uncertainties and how that’s affecting their colleagues and their own morale and their confidence in the States maintained sector to be able to deliver what they want is to be an excellent education provision because that’s what we’re all aspiring to, to make sure that we can be the best that we can be, that the children can reach their potential.”
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